The Albuquerque Hillbillies
by Six Feet Beneath The Stars
Summary: The Evans twins invite the gang to spend the summer at their cottage in Tennessee! Not only do they have to learn how to survive the country, but relationships will be tested when things start spiraling out of control. Sexual & Drug References.
1. Life's What You Make It

**Summary: **Ryan and Sharpay invite everyone over summer break to their cottage in Tenessee, expecting to arrive to a lodge their parents own, similar to the Lava Springs that they own in multiple states across the country. With the initial intention to show off, they are surprised when the cottage is actually a_ cottage_ in the _middle of nowhere._ The Evans twins and their friends go country! But only if they can survive... And as if surviving the wild wasn't hard enough, things begin to go horribly wrong one night when one mistake changes everything. Rated T for coarse language and sexual references.

Note: Click on the profile if you're interested in seeing Sharpay's outfit components.

**Life's What You Make It**

Sharpay Evans swung her Juicy couture Velour & Terry handbag over her shoulder, staring at her full reflection in her pink bedazzled full-length vanity mirror. She tilted her head slightly, examining each pore on her smooth, tan concealer-covered face. Her nicely sculpted brown eyebrows frowned as she examined herself critically in the mirror.

Something seemed off about her carefully planned outfit.

Sharpay started checking her outfit from the bottom up. She stared down at her brown D&G suede boots accompanied with a brown scoop-neck casual dress. The pink and golden Juicy bracelet on her left wrist and the pink charms on a necklace her father bought her last summer matched the brown and pink bag draped over her right shoulder. In her imagination, the outfit would have looked completely amazing on her, but right now, she couldn't help but feel that something was missing.

Sharpay strode past the exit to her walk in closet and winded up in her room once again, reaching over to the wall to press the intercom that would buzz in her maids. Her daddy hired some extra maids to look after their estate while they were away on break, and during Sharpay's last few days at home, she had already bothered three-fourths of the maids to help her pick out her wardrobe choice for vacation. Much to her distaste, she found that although the maids were good at keeping the house clean and orderly, their taste in clothes and accessories completely _sucked_.

_"That's too much pink, Miss Evans!"_

_"Nonsense, Dorota. There can never be too much pink."_

_"Miss Evans, you'll only be gone for four weeks! You don't need that many clothes."_

_"On the contrary, I do need all of that! Just in case I need an emergency spectacular outfit!"_

_"Tone down on the perfume before you set off an alarm! We're all suffocating in here, sis!"_

_"Fuck off, you drag queen!"_

_"Miss Evans, don't insult your brother!"_

_"AHH! You crazy bitch, let go of me!"_

_"Mr. and Ms. Evans, cut it out before I must call your parents down!"_

_"SHE STARTED IT! I was just minding my own business when she hit me with her Gucci bag and OWW-"_

_"Minding your own business - MY ASS. You came in here cuz you thought you could steal something of mine. Didn't you? Answer me, RYAN. DIDN'T YOU?!!?"_

_"...that is completely untrue!"_

_SMACK!_

_"Get the fuck out of my room!"_

Yep, despite her maid's lack of a taste in fashion - or at least a _good_ taste at that, yesterday's session _of picking out a totally hot outfit that will knock Troy Bolton or any other hot guy that comes up over vacay off_ _his feet_ actually went pretty well.

Pressing the red button on the intercom, Sharpay yelled into it as loudly as she could.

"_DOROTA_! WHERE'S MY MORNING MOCHA? I NEED SOMETHING TO FULLY WAKE ME UP SO THAT I CAN BE IN THE RIGHT STATE OF MIND WHEN I ACCESSORIZE MY OUTFIT FURTHER."

Sharpay's pink door swung open forty-five seconds after her message over the intercom, the pink beads on the door curtain smacking against the wooden frame of the door as a woman came into the room. The blonde middle-aged lady held a cup of coffee in her right hand, patiently waiting for Sharpay to recognize her presence so that she could deliver the coffee. Sharpay, who in the meantime had taken the liberty of busily applying her Dior pink lip balm onto her lips in her bathroom mirror, turned around expecting to see Dorota with her coffee.

"Oh!" Sharpay shrieked out of surprise when she saw her mother smiling sweetly at her, bearing a mocha in her small hands. Sharpay's eyes noticed the coffee and she moaned in delight, setting the lip gloss down onto the bathroom counter before reaching out to grab the mocha out of her mother's hands.

After taking a slight sip, Sharpay scrunched up her face and pulled her mouth away from the drink.

"What the hell is this? This is not my regular Starbucks coffee!"

"No, it isn't," Her mother agreed solemnly, still bearing the same smile. "Shar, dear, I told Dorota that she can sleep in today since we're leaving early in the morning. She must be exhausted from waiting on you every hour of the day-"

"What are you talking about?" Sharpay glanced at her mother, perplexed. "That's her _job_. We _pay_ her to do that."

"And I imagine that it must not be easy," Her mother's short platinum blonde hair lay bobbed on the top of her head as her hazel eyes surveyed the surroundings of the room. "I mean, dear, you _can _be very demanding at times."

Sharpay stared at her, unable to comprehend what her mother was speaking of. "_Me?_ Demanding? What is this... _demanding_ that you speak of?"

Her mother smiled sympathetically, reaching her right hand over to cup her daughter's face. "Sweetie, I know that you have grown very dependent on your maid over the past few years, but when we reach the cottage, you're not going to have that. I just hope you're prepared for that. That's the reason why I prepared you some homemade coffee this morning and brought it upstairs myself! I decided that Dorota should have the day off, given that she and the other maids will be taking care of the house for the next month."

Sharpay's hand reached out to remove her mother's fingers from her face. She then brushed the thoughts away as she continued sipping the coffee, making sure to let her mother be aware of her personal distaste of this homemade coffee.

"Come downstairs as soon as you're done, sweetheart! Your daddy needs to load your and Ryan's luggage into the limo!"

Sharpay nodded her head, signaling her mom that she understood the directions loud and clear.

"Then we'll go ahead and pick up those Wildcat friends of yours!"

"_Ryan'_s friends," Sharpay corrected briskly, "Not _mine_."

Her mother just continued smiling. Sharpay was sure that her yoga classes at Lava Springs had taught her well to remain smiling even when she did not feel like smiling.

"They're a lovely bunch of kids, Sharpay. Who knows, maybe they'll become _your_ friends too," Miss Evans cooed, patting Sharpay on top of her head similar to the way Sharpay pet her dog, Boi. "I'll see you downstairs, dear!"

"Yeah, whatever," Sharpay muttered under her breath as she watched her mother walk out the doors. Turning back to her reflection in the mirror, she frowned. Maybe she needed to apply some more bronzer to her face. Whatever the problem was, Sharpay felt the opposite of gorgeous at that moment, staring into the true colors of her face.

---

Troy smiled at Gabriella, who was sprawled over his bed, rummaging through his side drawers, helping him search for his house keys.

"Found 'em?" Troy mumbled, pushing the papers on his desk around haphazardly.

"Nope..." Gabriella sighed, pursing her lips. "You?"

Troy moved toward the side of the bed, kneeling down to kiss her quickly. "No...but, uh, how about we take a break?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes and let Troy jump over her and onto the other side of the bed.

"Yeah, good idea. That way we can..." Gabriella whispered, smirking inwardly.

"Yeah?" Troy mumbled, reaching around to her belt loop and pulling her closer.

"Yeah. We can finish packing your clothes." Gabriella giggled, pushing him off of her and rolling off of the bed.

Troy chuckled dryly and followed her to his closet, where a half-packed suitcase was strewn across the floor.

"All right, now all I need is a few more pairs of jeans and then we can-"

Troy was cut off by the sound of the door to his room swinging open like greased lightening, slamming in closure as quickly as it had opened. Both Troy and Gabriella jolted up from their seats in alarm, only to see a dork with an incredibly poofy afro dressed in an Ed Hardy skull t-shirt, red suspenders, Blue Brothers glasses, and mismatching tan bermuda shorts.

"Holy shit," Troy said, putting a hand to his chest. "You scared me, man." Frowning, he glanced down at what Chad was wearing. No, he wasn't wearing a shirt with a witty catchphrase or a 'save the world from global warming' kind of shirt that Taylor sometimes forced him to wear. Instead, he seemed to be striving to reach an _edgier_ look - a look that a guy like Chad should not attempt if he did not want to flat out look like a thug. _What the hell is up with the bermuda shorts? That just ruined the entire look he was going for. Epic failure._ Troy thought to himself.

Chad grinned, noticing their matching stares at his outfit. He pointed to his t-shirt proudly. "Like it? I think it makes me look _fly_-"

"You look like a douche," deadpanned Troy. Gabriella giggled, reaching over to grab a sport's magazine from his dresser and swatting it over his chest, chastising him for being rude.

"Ignore him, Chad. I think you look very..." Gabriella searched for the right word in her mind while at the same time attempting to keep a straight face, "...unique."

Chad grinned ear to ear. "I'm glad that you think so, Gabriella. You know, I was gonna add a red bandana, but I thought it would be just a _tad_ too much."

Troy raised an eyebrow while Gabriella blinked apprehensively. How was he even going to pull off wearing a bandana with his extremely voluminous hair?

"Yeah, just a tad," Troy remarked, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he returned to scanning pairs of jeans to pack. Chad took this as a sign to make himself feel at home, plopping on Troy's bed beside Gabriella, putting his dirty Nike sneakers on top of the clean bedsheets.

"So, how excited are ya'll bout headin' over to the country?"

When Troy remained silent, Gabriella decided to reply, just out of courtesy.

"It could be fun." She stated nonchalantly, her tone devoid of emotion.

Chad turned his head to stare at her in utter shock as if she had ten heads.

"Fun? _Just_ fun? Woman, are you INSANE? This isn't just any other cottage in the middle of nowhere... this is an EVANS cottage. And the Evans are filthy, stinkin' rich bitches! This so-called cottage is probably equipped with kickass video games and an indoor pool and jacuzzi!"

Troy's eyes immediately lit up at the mention of that, sneaking a furtive glance towards Gabriella. "_Jacuzzi_, you say?"

Chad nodded his head fervently, his brown eyes lighting up with a glint of deviousness. "I'm not kidding. This is gonna be one hell of a trip. Ryan Evans is officially my favorite person in the world," Before his best friend could reply to that, he quickly added, "No homo."

Troy chuckled slightly, folding some extra shirts into his luggage. "I know. I wasn't interpreting it that way... Gabi, what time is it?"

Gabriella glanced down at her golden watch. "It's exactly 8 o clock. Oh, we should get going before we're late!"

She sat up from her seat, taking the time to strech and let out a quick yawn. Chad did the same, obliviously smacking Gabriella in the face with his pimp bracelet when he streched his right arm.

"Man, I'm glad we can take the Evan's jet plane!" Chad stated. "I'd never get through airport security with this outfit," Chad laughed, unaware that Gabriella was glaring at him whilst rubbing her eyelid.

"Yeah," Gabriella muttered under her breath. "For good reasons."

"Did you say something, Gabriella?"

"Nope, not a word."

--

Taylor McKessie was appalled.

Was he _shitting_ her? For lack of a better word, Taylor was completely fucking pissed. What the hell was going on in that empty lunkhead brain of his when he got dressed that morning?

"Hey, Taylor," Chad stood with his arms wide open as he walked out of the Bolton residence and onto the sidewalk where his girlfriend stood in front of a blue mini-van. Not to mention Taylor's _parents_ were in that mini-van, ready to bid goodbye to their sweet, intelligent young lady and drive her lovely well-behaved, articulate, completely sane friends to the Evan's estate.

In fact, Taylor hadn't even told her parents that she was dating Chad. She was hoping that after they came back from the break, she would invite him over for dinner and he would come in eloquently dressed in a tuxedo, completely wow her guardians with his highly sophisticated mannerisms, and generally make a good impression on her parents, both of whom were highly respected lawyers in Albuquerque. _This_ was not exactly a great first introduction of the boyfriend to the parents. They would be concerned for Taylor's well-being if they found out she was even _friends_ with _that_ Chad.

Taylor couldn't believe him. Out of all days, he had to choose exactly _this day_ to dress up like a... punk?

She merely shook her head in disgust as she scanned what he was wearing.

"You fucking retard, did you forget that my parents were driving us?" She could barely let out any words. That boy had some fucking nerve. She decided asking him _why_ he was wearing that could possibly be a good starting point, but then again, Chad barely ever had valid reasons for half the crap he did.

"What the hell are you-" In fear of what she would hear, she immediately took that back. "You know what? I'm not even going to ask. I just hope you're happy because now my parents are _never_ going to let me date a screwball like you," And with that, she took off the metallic bracelet he had given her on their third date at the movies and slammed it into his chest, hard enough to make an impact.

"Oww," Chad rubbed the spot she hit on his chest, sticking out his bottom lip in a pout. "Aw thanks for bruising my ego, Taylor!"

She ignored him and silently sat down in the backseat of the car, slamming the door. Gabriella smiled sadly at Chad, passing him by as she opened the door, politely said hello to Taylor's parents, and took the seat next to her best friend. Troy attempted to hide his smirk as he pat his friend on the back and climbed into the backseat of the van, Chad following behind like a lost puppy.

"I cannot believe him," Taylor whispered to Gabriella once they were all inside the car. Gabriella just nodded and gave her friend a reassuring hug.

"All right kids, we're off," Taylor's mom turned her head to face the kids, smiling softly at them. "Are you all excited?"

"Thrilled," Taylor mumbled, gritting her teeth.

--

**AN: **Review! Kudos to those who know which CW show **Dorota**, Sharpay's maid, is referenced from! Next chapter should be up sometime during this week or next depending on the amount of feedback that's received.


	2. These Four Walls Again

**NOTE:** Once again, if you are interested in seeing the outfits and songs in this chapter, click on the profile to view it!

**These Four Walls Again**

Gabriella curled up next to Troy in the small loveseat facing the 42" plasma screen TV on the wall of the Evan's private jet. Troy stretched his arm, inconspicuously allowing Gabriella to wrap her arms around his chest, before placing his arm back over her shoulder, caressing her hand lightly.

Taylor, who was still fuming, sat opposite them on a plush armchair with her arms crossed angrily across her chest, Chad nowhere in sight.

The gang hadn't realized how big and comfortable the Evan's jet was going to be until they arrived on the tarmac.

_"That's the plane?" Troy had gawked, starring at the humongous Boeing 747 that read "Eternally Evans" on the side in hot pink cursive script. "Looks more like a luxury liner to me..."_Sharpay, who had changed out of her "boarding the plane" outift, a khaki-colored knee length trench coat over a strapless black Armani dress and the infamous Louboutins, into her "I'm-so-fancy-on-my-private-plane" look - an ABS one-shoulder red silk mini dress and a pair of "Blaze" style Jimmy Choo studded gladiator sandals (in her opinion, it was the best outfit for expressing her ambitious aire of "I'm-richer-than-you" casual-chic) walked gracefully out of the spacious bathroom and into the main room. She had twisted her hair into a lofty blonde ponytail, her extensions spiral curled and bouncing happily against the top of her shoulder.

Sharpay pushed past them, strutting in her all-black "Carnaval" style Louboutin's. They had been specially made for her, so that instead of red-bottom soles, they had shocking pink.

"Pick up your jaws, boys. It's just a plane."

"Finally, Shar!" Ryan exclaimed, jumping from his seat and teetering towards the bathroom door. "I almost pissed on myself!"

"Well, save us all from the laughter. Go ahead lame-ass, the bathroom's all yours."

With that, Ryan rushed into the lavatory and slammed the door. A loud "Ahhhhh" emerged after a few minutes, and everyone in the plane's cabin giggled. Sharpay hid her smirk, crossing her arms across her chest in satisfaction.

"Oh hey, Sharpay..." Troy said, winking at Gabriella seductively, "Is there any place I could, y'know, lay down?"

Sharpay smiled, narrowing her eyes deviously. "Yeah, Troy." She jutted her thumb back towards the bathroom. "There's a bedroom right back there. Nice and cozy..."

"Yeah?" Troy replied, getting up and moving toward the bedroom. "I'll, uh...be in there...if anyone needs me."

Sharpay immediately got up and opened the bathroom door, throwing Ryan out and slamming the door behind her.

"HEY! I WAS WASHING MY HANDS!" He shouted, slamming his fist against the door.

Sharpay laughed maniacally, "I DON'T GIVE A DAMN!"

---

After the others had fallen asleep, and Sharpay had strangely locked herself in the bathroom, Gabriella snuck into the bedroom nervously. Troy was sprawled across the bed, arms outstreched. They had talked about taking their relationship to the next level for the past month, but never actually got around to doing so with all the interruptions. Gabriella knew what was on Troy's mind this morning, but she never exactly imagined losing her virginity on Sharpay and Ryan's private jet (not to mention with the presence of all their friends, Sharpay, and her parents just a few rooms away) whilst flying over Oklahoma. She knew it was Oklahoma considering Mr. and Mrs. Evans began singing showtunes from the play _Oklahoma_ obnoxiously loudly as soon as they passed Texas. It seemed as if singing, performing, and annoying people ran in the family.

"Took you long enough." He winked at her when she entered the room, motioning for her to come over. She smiled nervously and walked over hesitantly. He noticed her reluctance and frowned, sensing that something was wrong.

"Hey, are you all right?" He asked, concern filling his voice. She nodded her head slowly.

He sighed, sensing her tenseness. "We don't have to do this if you're not ready, you know. I mean, I don't want to push you into anything and I'd feel a whole lot more comfortable if you were sure of this."

"I am," Gabriella protested, "It's just that... I don't know. I'm scared, I guess."

"Of what exactly?"

Of course, Troy Bolton was a whole lot more experienced at this than she was. Although they never exactly discussed this openly, it was rather obvious that he knew she was a virgin and judging by what she heard from Taylor and others, he was not. It's not like it bothered her all that much, considering that was from before he met her. The thing that she feared most was that she wouldn't know what to do and he would just sit there laughing at her. Okay, so that probably wouldn't happen, but still... something along those lines isn't too far off.

"What happens after, I guess."

"Gabriella, I hope you're not thinking that I'm one of those guys who just uses a girl to get what he wants and then-"

"No, no-" She stopped him abruptly, "It's not that- never mind. It's stupid." She shot him a weak smile, "I'm ready if you are."

She cupped his cheek and began kissing him forcefully.

Troy rolled over ontop of her, careful not to crush her body with his, and slid his hand across her collarbone, tugging on her shirt. Gabriella reached for the hem of his sweater, sliding it over his head and un-buttoning his jeans at the same time.

He pulled of her shirt, breaking their kiss for only a moment, and had started to slide off her undershirt, when there was a soft knock on the door. Troy turned around just in time to see Sharpay, scantily clad in hot pink lingerie staring down at the two lovebirds romping in the sheets.

"Her?!" She shouted, gawking at Troy's almost-nakedness ontop of Gabriella.

Troy's eyes widened as he looked down at himself. One hand was halfway down Gabriella's skirt, the other on her bare stomach, and he had been straddling her, his boxer-clad crotch dangling just above her thighs.

"HER!!!" Sharpay screamed again, tearing into the room, closing the door behind her.

"Uh..." Gabriella grimaced nervously. "Troy...get off _now_."

Troy rolled over, only to notice an unsightly bump between his legs and covering it with a sheet.  
"Sharpay...calm down. Uh, Gabriella's my _girlfriend_. You know that..."

"But...I thought you had been winking at _me_!" Sharpay pouted, crossing her arms over her barely covered chest.

Gabriella reached for her shirt, pulling it over her head, rolling down her undershirt to re-cover her bare stomach. "I'm really sorry, Sharpay. It's just that...we've been waiting for a while. I just thought..."

Troy mumbled, "I thought it'd just be...y'know, romantic."

"SO YOU DECIDE TO DO IT IN MY JET PLANE WHILE MY PARENTS OR ANYONE ELSE CAN WALK IN ANYTIME? FUCK YOU!" Sharpay screeched. With that, she turned to go, leaving Troy and Gabriella upset and deflated.

---

Ryan opened his eyes just in time to see Sharpay stripping out of her lingerie in the bathroom.

_She left the door open..._ Ryan thought to himself, his eyes glazing over at the sight of her body. M_aybe I should record this and post it on the internet!_"YEAH!" Ryan shout-whispered, jumping up and reaching for a nearby camera.

After about thirty-seconds of filming, Sharpay turned around, seeing Ryan film her. He looked like a paparatzo filming porn.

"PERV!"

With that, she slammed the door.

_Damn...so close._

---

"_Psst!"_

No response.

"_Pssst_, Taylor!"

Taylor narrowed her eyes, which were covered by American Eagle fresh wibes sunglasses that she packed with her, assuming the weather in Tenessee would be sunny. She was spending some quality time with her mug of coffee and New York Times article, and she most certainly did not need to be pestered by her idiotic boyfriend who was _still_ clad in his ridiculous outfit.

"Tay, I think they're having sex in there-"

This certainly caused Taylor's ears to perk. She immediately dropped her newspaper onto the table she was sitting at and stood up to face Chad. As Gabriella's best friend, she obviously knew that they had been planning to have sex for the first time for quite awhile now.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah," Chad breathed out, pointing to the door from which slight moaning was audible. "Mr. and Mrs. Evans are really going at it in there."

Taylor let out a sigh of relief as she realized it was not what she thought it was.

"Dear God," She muttered, not intending for Chad to overhear, "Why is everyone so horny these days?"

Chad blinked aloofly. "I don't know, but if all this sex is making you horny, then I'm up for it!"

Taylor glared at him, shooting him the evil eye while sticking up her middle finger at him, letting him know her response to that idea. Chad just shrugged his shoulders and smiled innocently, "Hey, it was worth a shot-"

Chad was cut off by the sound of Ryan's heavy footsteps stomping against the carpeted ground. Both Taylor and Chad turned to face the blond boy who strode into the room glumly, his shoulders sagging and his left hand holding a weak grip against a digital camera.

"I was _so_ close to making some extra cash today," Ryan mumbled glumly. "But Sharpay closed the door before I could start."

Chad and Taylor exchanged puzzled glances before Chad spoke out.

"Uh, dude... I thought you were rich! Why would you need any money?"

"Oh, well... you see... about a month ago, my mom convinced my dad to stop giving me and Sharpay allowances because she felt like if they continued to give us money then they'd spoil us. So, now Shar and I have to fend on our own."

"And you were doing _what_ exactly?" Taylor asked, eyeing Ryan suspiciously.

Ryan stood silent for a moment before quickly changing the subject. "Hey! I had the oddest song recommended to me on my iTunes! It's a song by this band of Russian lesbians called Tatu who recently had a scandal about them not really being lesbians!"

"..."

"..."

"_When you're naked in the shower... oooh I wish I was a fly on the wall!"_

"..."

"..."

"Ach-em. It's a really good song. Youtube it when you get near a laptop."

"You know what song _you_ should Youtube, Ryan? _Birthday sex_! _Birthday sex!_"

Taylor groaned in agony. "_Chad,_ please don't start singing. You sound like a rapist when you sing that ridiculous song."

"Well, my birthday _is_ coming up soon-"

"No."

And that was that.

-

**AN: **Kudos to those who can guess where the chapter titles come from!


	3. I Wanna Be Your Underwear

**NOTE:** Check the profile to see Gabriella's outfit components and the song in this chapter!

**I Wanna Be Your Underwear**

"Prepare for landing!" The crackled voice of the pilot blared through the overhead speakers. Ryan rolled over in his seat, leaning his head against one of the plastic window panes. Sharpay adjusted her bedazzled iPod headphones under her thick blonde extensions and sighed, scrolling aimlessly through her playlists. Gabriella was sitting across the room from Troy. They hadn't talked since Sharpay had interrupted their little romp and turned it into a fiasco.

Just then, the plane hit a bit of turbulence, causing Taylor's coffee to slosh around in her "A+ Student" mug and her boyfriend to wake up, screaming "WE'RE GONNA CRASH! FLIGHT 29 DOWN!"

Taylor groaned and switched seats, opting for one of the emergency seats that pulled out from the wall, and buckled the maroon safety belt. Chad curled up in the fetal position on the leather couch, his afro shaking wildly as he rocked.

"Final warning- please prepare for landing." The pilot's voice crackled again before the plane wheels bucked up and down as the plane bounced along the runway.

This time, the co-pilot's voice came through the speakers, louder than the voice of the pilot. "We have landing! I repeat, we have landing!"

"FINALLY!" Sharpay shouted, smiling as she threw her iPod into her bag. "Time to get this party started!"

Ryan grinned, anticipating an outburst of song. Before he could even open his mouth to begin singing, Sharpay raised her hand to stop him before he started.

"No, Ryan. Don't you dare start singing _Pink_."

----

Getting off the jet plane proved to be a lot more difficult than Sharpay assumed it would be. Apparently, the rest of the Wildcats weren't familiar with the '_exiting an uber fancy Eternally Evans jet plane' _rules. First of all, _no one_ exited the plane before herself. Not even Mr. Evans. She was always first to get off, followed by her father and mother, and Ryan lagging behind like a lost puppy. Now THAT was the normal procedure.

But those stupid, _stupid _wildcats weren't familiar with that order, and therefore thought that crowding around to exit the plane seemed like a better plan. Her parents found it amusing, but she just found it extremely annoying. They were _so_ ignorant of all things that were _so_ obvious to her.

"God damn't Troy, your ass is in my face!" Chad hollered from the back of the line, turning his head backwards to shoot daggers at Ryan, whose face was merely centimeters away from his neck. "Stop breathing in my ear! That's gross, dude!"

"I can't find my duck necklace!" Ryan screeched, panic taking over his voice as his eyes scanned the aisles. Chad's brown eyes narrowed as they pierced into Ryan's hazels.

"And you decide to look for your mother effing duck _now_ out of all other possible moments-"

"I THINK I SEE IT!" Ryan shouted, bending his knees as he dropped to the floor, crawling on all fours just like a dog. Chad's eyes widened in alarm as his eyes dropped down to the floor.

"Uh... Ryan? Ryan! Ryan, what the hell are you doing?" Chad sounded panic-stricken as Ryan crawled through the hole in between Chad's legs in search of his necklace.

"I gotta find the necklace! It was my mom's birthday present for me after she came back from _the Bahamas_!" Ryan responded, attempting to get through the space. "Oh crap... dude... I can't get through!"

"_What_?" Chad hissed. "Are you fucking kidding me, man? Get the hell out of there! This is a complete violation of my privacy! AHH, HOLY SHIT. NO. DON'T LIFT UP YOUR HEAD. THAT'S MY MANHOOD RIGHT THERE, DUDE."

"Well, if you would only _expand _your legs a little bit then this wouldn't hurt as much and I'd be able to get through and grab the damn necklace!"

Seeing Troy move out of the aisle and towards the exit, Chad took the opportunity to get ahead. Unfortunately, with Ryan in an uncomfortable spot, he had to waddle his way up to the front.

"Ryan, get the hell off! I'm not _expanding_ my legs for you! Get out of there, _now._"

"I see London, I see France! I see Chad's under-"

"RYAN! MOVE!"

"I'M STUCK. WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO? THIS ISN'T EXACTLY A WALK IN THE PARK, Y'KNOW."

"How the fuck can you be stuck? Would you stop walking like a dog for God's sake?! Get the hell-"

Taylor, having heard the commotion from the front of the line, turned her head backwards to see where the screaming was coming from. Her mouth dropped in shock as she saw her _boyfriend,_ who had gotten rid of his Blue brothers glasses and red suspenders mid-flight, standing in the aisle with Ryan Evans in between his legs. She pulled down her AE shades, examining the scene in further detail, just to make sure she wasn't _seeing_ things.

"Un-believable," Taylor deadpanned, placing her hand on her hip and shifting her weight on her right knee.

Troy, right behind Taylor, noticed her stare and turned around to see what she was looking at, crushing an object on the floor at the same time. He raised an eyebrow out of curiosity at the spectacle.

"Uh... what's going on?" He asked his best friend and the pink clad man in between his legs.

"I'm stuck," Ryan said in a low murmur, "...and you just stepped on my duckie necklace."

Chad's face turned a shade of red as he looked down. "Ryan, you just practically gave me a _head_job."

Taylor let out a loud groan, her hands flying to her face. "Chad Danforth, you never cease to appall me."

Chad's eyes widened in horror as he glanced up at his girlfriend. "Taylor! Oh shit, babe, this isn't what it looks like!" His eyes peaked down to match her incredulous stare. "Ok, so maybe it _is _what it looks like, but I swear I can explain!"

"My poor necklace!" Ryan cried out in agony, crawling out of the space and towards Troy's feet, where his necklace lay crushed.

"Oh!" Troy said in surprise, moving his foot. "Dude, I'm sorry... I didn't see it there."

Chad blinked. "Oh, so NOW you finally get the hell out and stop making a sexual pass at me?" Noticing the blank stares of his best friend and his girlfriend, he immediately regretted saying that aloud. "Wait. That came out wrong..."

"You know, I don't even want to know," Taylor muttered to him venomously before stomping off to the exit. "You and your damn games, Chad! I'm so sick of it!"

"I didn't do anything!" Chad shouted, throwing his arms up in the air in a rant. "Urgh! Great, now she's even more pissed at me! And this time, it wasn't even my fault!"

"My necklace!" Ryan wept melodramatically, disregarding Chad's fury. "It's gone! Forever!"

"Suck it up, jackass!"

---

Gabriella stepped off the plane, descending down the stairs onto the tarmac right after Mrs. Evans. She and Mrs. Evans had engaged in a fascinating conversation over genetic engineering during the plane's landing, and Mrs. Evans had urged the girl to exit the plane with her. Sharpay, in the meantime, stood _behind _Gabriella, seething with rage.

To people other than Sharpay, the order of getting off the plane really wouldn't matter. In fact, perhaps if it was Troy who was in front of her, she would not mind it that much. Gabriella standing in front of her, in Sharpay's opinion, was just another metaphor for Gabriella always being two steps ahead of her.

Luckily, she didn't have to think about that silly metaphor for too long, because there were only ten more steps until she reached where their ride was supposed to be pulling up any minute. Except...there was a huge white SUV in its place.

_Oh HELL no._

"Here we are!" Mrs. Evans exclaimed, pointing towards the van. "Okay, chickies, everyone hop in. We have 20 miles of ground to cover before we reach the cottage. I hope everyone used the restroom!"

"Shit." Troy mumbled, bouncing from left foot to right as he made his way towards the car.

--

Sharpay rested her head against the cold glass window of the SUV. Despite the fact that the outside looked crappy, the inside was rather spacious - not as spacious as their limo, of course - and the leather seats quite forgiving - not as forgiving as the leather interior of their limo, of course - but it still wasn't up to Sharpay standards. What made it even worse was that her dad was driving. She hadn't seen him drive since she was seven years old when he crashed into an oncoming Jetta while taking her to her ballet class. She wasn't even sure if he still had a valid _license_.

Nevertheless, even Sharpay had to admit that the rolling hills and roadside pastures were almost as attractive as the surrounding grounds at the Evan's Mansion back in Albuquerque - _almost_.

Just then, Gabriella, who had been resting across from Troy in the row of seats in front of her, exclaimed. "Woah, guys! Look!"

Everyone turned to face the nearest window and watched as a dozen wild horses, all different colors and patterns, jumped the short wooden fence blocking a nearby farm from the oncoming traffic, and galloped just past the back of the van, their tails billowing behind them.

"Amazing...I haven't seen anything like that since the 'Wild Horses and Cattle' episode of _Animals In Your Backyard!_ on the Discovery Channel!" Taylor smiled, her teeth gleaming from the warm yellow light of the noonday sun. Sharpay merely rolled her eyes at the girl's apparent nerdy-ness, sticking a piece of Strident gum into her mouth.

Chad, who had only seen the back end of the black horse taking the rear shouted, "I wanna name that one Black Fieya!"

"Shut up, Chad," Taylor groaned, slapping him on the shoulder before turning around to stare out the other window into the dense forest that lined the right side of the interstate.

The paved part of the road suddenly stopped, and the van began getting rockier. While trying to drive over pebbles and through dry patches of mud, Mr. Evans nearly hit a huge brown-black-and-white Australian Shepherd dog.

"WATCH OUT!" Mrs. Evans screamed, causing Mr. Evan's to swerve dramatically to the right, bouncing off the side of the used-to-be-road-now-just-a-dirt-path and pushed hard on the brakes, resulting in a loud SCREEEEECH! Beneath the tires, the crunching sound of dried leaves and broken branches crackled wildly, causing loud bird tweets to be heard from high up in the humongous oak trees.

"Dad! What the hell!?" Ryan shouted, one hand cradling the remaining shards of his broken duck necklace, the other hand gripping his sister's for dear life.

"Get the hell off of me, Ry."

Ryan looked down and blushed, "Oh, right. I forgot about the 'no physical contact' part of the restraining order. My bad..."

"That poor _dog_!" Gabriella shouted, crawling over Troy's lap (luckily, she was too concerned with the dog to notice Troy staring down at her ass) and opening the door, her Adidas collecting dirt beneath them as she ran out into the empty street, where the dog sat, perfectly calm, staring back at her.

Taylor struggled to get out of the car without making any contact with her bashful boyfriend, eventually brushing his afro out of the way as she climbed out, chasing after her best friend.

"Chickadees! Wait for me!" Mrs. Evans screamed, flinging open the passenger side door and following after the growing crowd of teenagers into the street. Mr. Evans, not knowing what to do, did what any whipped husband would do - followed after his wife.

Gabriella was crouched next to the happy looking dog, which happened to have a thin, braided leather collar with a small silver charm that read his name, address, and his favorite spot (Mr. MacHenry's barn loft).

"His name is Indigo..." Gabriella drawled, staring down that the dull silver charm. "Indigo Dixon."

"Did you say, Indigo?!" Mr. Evans exclaimed, his left hand scratching the back of his head, which was covered with thick white strands, despite the fact that he recently dyed his hair in an attempt to look "thirty" again. "That's Cleo's dog!"

Taylor raised an eyebrow, turning to face Sharpay's father and mother.

"Cleo is Sharpay and Ryan's aunt. My step-sister. Our mother was always one for exotic names..." Mr. Evans said, staring out towards the unusually clear blue sky. "Her dad wasn't really one of us. I mean, he just couldn't live up to the Evans standards. He was one of those guys who'd rather be wearing a red-plaid flannel shirt and go hunting than eat caviar in a tuxedo. He left my mom and ran away to the country a few years after they got married. Sent her the divorce papers two weeks later. Cleo felt so bad that when she turned 14, she ran away to be with her father. She wrote me all the time, and gave me her address and everything. It's been almost 30 years and she's still kept in touch. She used to own the cottage that we're going to be staying in. Kids! I think Indigo is here to show us around. We must be close."

Gabriella's eyes went wide, her smile bright. "Let's load him up, then! I'm sure there's room for him in the back." She pointed towards where Sharpay had dozed off, her cheek pressed against the window, covered in slobber.

"Yes, dear. I'm sure Sharpay and Duckie won't mind."

--

After a few adjustments, Indigo Dixon was strapped in between Ryan and Sharpay - who was incredibly annoyed and uncomfortable - and Mr. Evan's sped off down the winding road. Gabriella appeared to have forgotten the embarrassment from the plane as she stared longingly at the dog.

As a child, she had always wanted a dog. Her mother promised her every year that if she pulled off her straight A's, they would be able to get a dog. Of course, there was always an excuse that resulted in an empty promise. The fact that they moved around quite a bit also made it rather difficult to get a dog. Her mother suggested a small lap dog, but Gabriella wasn't much of a fan of dogs who resembled rats.

Indigo looked just like the dog she always imagined of having as a kid. She knew that she would end up getting attached to that dog as every second passed.

"Ew, it's slobbering on me!" Sharpay shrieked. She, unlike Gabriella, was fond of small dogs that could rest in the palm of one's hand.

"That's what dogs usually do, Sharpay," Taylor remarked in a monotone tone, rolling her eyes at the pampered princess.

"Ugh, Boi was never like this!" Sharpay sneered, making a disgusted face as Indigo happily licked her face. "Not even during the paper-training phase!"

"Shar, I think he likes the taste of your moisturizer! It tastes EXACTLY like peaches and cream!" Ryan exclaimed excitedly, earning strange looks from everyone in the car aside from his parents.

"Uh, Ryan?" Troy asked cautiously, "How exactly do you know that?"

"Erm... you know what song ya'll should look up when you get near a laptop-"

"Hey! I know what you're trying to do!" Chad pointed his index finger at Ryan. "You're trying to distract us so we forget that we ever asked!"

_"I gotta be the spoon to stir your cream! I wanna to be the one that really makes you SCREEAM! I wanna be your lipstick when ya lick it! I wanna be your high heels when ya kick it!"_

Sharpay scoffed. "You call _that_ actual music? More like your strange masturbating soundtrack!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"_I WANNA BE YOUR UNDERWEAR_!"

--

An hour or so passed, and Sharpay was becoming incredibly bored. Every cloud looked the same. Every farm and silo looked the same. Forest to the right, field to the left. Except for the occasional corn field, the scenery was consistently the same and positively _country_. She even saw a sign posted on one of the rare telephone poles (with a small pay-phone attached to the side) announcing the "18th Annual Blossom Valley County Fair - with special guest, the Bumpkin Quartet featuring Billie on the fiddle!"

Was this what hell would be like? Because if so, she would rather pray every day for the next forty years than go to that awful godforsaken place.

Just as Sharpay was about to let herself slip into a slow and painful death, Indigo began barking wildly his head pointed to the left, towards a two story cottage that looked like it belonged in a fairytale.

The cottage was small with its wood and stucco walls and red shingled roof, but it looked home-y and lived in, as if someone had left the little pale yellow house just waiting for someone to make it their own. The cottage was surrounded by grass, the only exception being the gravel driveway that curved around the back of the house, out of eye view. About thirty yards away, a large red barn stood next to a white metal silo with shingles identical to the ones on the cottage. The cottage had a small, light-colored wooden picket fence that looked like it could use some work surrounding the entire plot of land, which was nearly 30 acres in size. A shed stood off in the distance, surrounded by two grazing horses and a few chickens flapping their wings.

_Shoot me now..._ Sharpay thought as her father pulled into the driveway, creeping slowly towards the front doors.

"This is the place, darlings!" Mrs. Evans squealed, turning around in the passenger's seat to face the teens.

"It's lovely..." Gabriella whispered.

"It's gorgeous!" Taylor added.

"It's…It's...It's-"

"HELL!" Sharpay exclaimed, tears rolling down her cheeks. She had _so_ not worn ABS for this...

--

Sharpay struggled against the weight of her rhinestone-studded suitcase, huffing and puffing as she carried it up the rickety stairs, which hadn't been rickety until she had forced her suitcases onto them.

"Ugh!" She said, throwing her suitcase onto the bed in the room that she was forced to share with Taylor and Gabriella. The cottage only had two upstairs rooms - Troy, Chad and Ryan shared the second of them. Mr. and Mrs. Evans had taken a cozy spot in the closed-in porch on the pull out couch.

She looked up towards the rafters and watched as a spider climbed through the dusty corners of the ceiling and skittered to its web.

Sharpay groaned, riffling through her bag, before pulling out her asian cherrywood brush and angrily brushed out her roots.

"Stupid cottage..." She mumbled, throwing her brush back into her bag. "Stupid fucking country. Stupid fucking parents. UGH!"

Just then, Gabriella walked in, wheeling her modest TJ Maxx suitcase into the room. She had changed into a quiet number, opting for a flower eyelet oatmeal-colored dress that fell a few inches above the knee under a teal boyfriend cardigan, complimented with a pair of neon blue T-strap Delia's sandals and thin silver beaded earrings.

Sharpay stopped her rant and stared at Gabriella, her eyes droopy and tired. "Just pick a bed. But I already have the one by the window..." With that, she slunk out of the room, her head down, her shoulders hunched, looking awkward against her red satin dress.

A few minutes after Sharpay left the room, Troy walked in, knocking casually on the antiqued wooden door.

Gabriella gulped, then turning to put her folded clothes away neatly in the only empty shelf of the ancient-looking dresser. "Yes," she mumbled, quietly shutting the drawer.

"Gabriella..." Troy said, smiling into the feeling of her name on his lips, "You can't avoid me forever..."

"I'm not _avoiding_ you, per se..." Gabriella said, muffling her voice by pulling the drawer out again, adjusting her light-colored clothes against the darks, careful not to reveal her bras and underwear to her awaiting boyfriend.

"Gabs...I'm sorry. I didn't expect anyone to walk in. I thought that I'd be able to lock the door or something. I'm _really_ sorry." He touched her shoulder lightly, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek. She shrugged his hand away, pushing him further behind her.

Troy paused, his hand still resting where her shoulder should have been. "Gabriella..."

"Troy!" She finally said, turning to face him, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have even been thinking about doing something like that...I mean, I'm an honor student; I'm in the YIP program (Young interns program) for Exceptional Students; I get straight A's; I tutor sixth graders at the public school once a week, and I take almost every weekend class available. What if we had done it? What if something had happened? _I _can't take risks like that… _you_ can't take risks like that, _and you know it_. Troy, I love you, I_ really_ do, but I can't do things like this. I-I'm sorry."

With that, Gabriella tore out of the room, leaving Troy standing alone in the empty room, the sound of the wind rustling the leaves outside the window the only reply to Troy's sighs.

-

**AN: **Which name (in your opinion) would suit a cowboy better - Trent or Trevor?


	4. Crazier

**NOTE:** As always, every chapter will have links up on the profile to better visualize the items in the story.

**Crazier**

Gabriella ran out of the cottage and across the field, the wind pelting her with the sweet scent of honeysuckles and new blooms. Her heart was pounding in her ears so loud that the crunching sound of crinkled leaves under her sandals could no longer be heard. Somewhere off in the distance, she could hear the sounds of rowdy chickens flapping their wings against the wind, trying their hardest to fly.

Before she knew it, she could barely see the cottage behind her, so she fell into the grass to rest, pulling idly at a stray dandelion.

_I've never gone with the wind, just let it flow  
Let it take me where it wants to go _

While examining the flower in between her fingers, she felt the ground shaking. She lifted up her head to overlook the field, seeing a horse galloping while a man rode it in the distance. The horses footsteps dug heavier into the ground as the horse gradually approached her.

The horse slowed down, taking small footsteps toward her. The man on the white horse looked to be about her age - and if not, only a tad older than her. His dirty blond hair glistened in the sun and his endearing smile stood out amongst his face.

"Howdy, there! You're lookin' mighty lost," The boy spoke, shooting her a warm smile while pulling on the reins as the horse came to a halt.

Gabriella smiled slightly. "Not lost quite yet." She craned her neck to look back at the direction where she came from. "On second thought, I might be as of now..."

The boy let out a slight chuckle, adjusting his saddle as he climbed off the horse.

"I'm Trevor. I haven't seen you 'round here before. I reckon you're new."

_Till you open the door there's so much more  
I've never seen it before  
I was trying to fly but I couldn't find wings  
You came along and you changed everything_

"Gabriella," She said. "Nice to meet you. I'm actually here with some of my friends for a few weeks."

"Well, ain't I lucky to run into a pretty girl such as yourself visiting Blossom Valley," He winked.

Gabriella blushed slightly. This cowboy sure knew how to flatter a girl.

Just then, Gabriella realized she was still lying in the field, and that he was staring down at her.

"Oh...um, c-can you h-" Gabriella began raising her arms as she pushed up on her feet, trying to get up gracefully in front of the handsome stranger.

Trevor laughed casually before grabbing her by the wrists and pulling her up smoothly, never once loosening his grip, "There ya' go," he smiled. Suddenly his hand was resting on the top of Gabriella's head, just like Troy used to do when they first started dating.

"Uh..." Gabriella began, but then she understood.

Trevor ran his fingers through a section of her hair slowly, and then smiled. "You had some grass in your hair. I don't want a pretty young lady like yer'self to walk 'round with green laced into her locks."

Gabriella gave him a thankful smile and began to walk back towards the cottage. Looking up, she saw storm clouds forming - dark patches of gray blowing in from across town.

"I reckon it's about to pour," Trevor inquired, following Gabriella's gaze.

She sighed, cursing under her breath. "Yeah, I better go. I have to get back..." She pointed to the faded cottage in the distance.

"That seems mighty far. Me and old Sadie 'er wouldn't mind given a pretty lady like yer'self a ride." Trevor walked back towards his brown-and-white spotted horse, which was busy mulling around the field, plucking up blades of grass with its front teeth, and pulled him by his rope reigns.

"No...no, I couldn't. I mean...I _can't_," Gabriella motioned towards Sadie.

Trevor knit his brows, "Ah, shoot! Anyone can ride. Here, lemme help you." Before Gabriella knew what was going on, Trevor had his arms wrapped delicately around her and one of her sandal-clad feet was placed on the thick leather stirrup.

_You lift my feet off the ground. _  
_You spin me around._

"Just push up and flip your leg over," He said from behind her.

Gabriella gulped - she had had never rode on anything _living_ before. "W-what if I fall or something?"

Trevor chuckled, "Don't worry, I'll catch you"

_You make me crazier, crazier_.

----

Before she knew it, Trevor had slid in front of her on the saddle and Gabriella had her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, holding onto his strong body for fear of falling.

_Feels like I'm falling and I-  
I'm lost in your eyes _

"What'd you say her name was?" Gabriella said, using her index finger to motion toward the horse.

"Sadie," Trevor replied, gripping tighter on the makeshift reigns. "Sadie Rose. My mom got 'er for my fifth birthday. She was justa pony, then. Mom told me I was gonna be a 'skilled equestrian'. Psh, if I'd only known that them complicated words would mean that I'd have te' take horse ridin' lessons from Grandpa Morris ever' day after school..." He laughed to himself. Gabriella smiled. She was impressed by both his humble down-to-earth-ness, as well as his large vocabulary.

"She's beautiful..." She finally mumbled, running a free hand over Sadie's hair.

_You make me crazier, crazier, crazier. _

Trevor sighed deeply, "Yep, ain't she a beaut'! I always see my mom in 'er. It's nice to have something to remember her by, y'know?"

"What do you mean?" Gabriella said slowly, looking up at the back of Trevor's head, furrowing her brows.

"Oh, uh...my mom died last summer. Terrible house fire - well, more like a conflagration. It started in the Kleton's barn next door. One of their chickens knocked over a lamp that had been restin' near its cage. Caused the whole thing to light up like a Christmas tree. My dad's part of the Blossom Valley volunteer fire brigade, so he went to go help out." Trevor stopped, his smooth voice suddenly cracking. "No one knew that the fire had spread from the back of the barn. Tore through all the straw we had out back. Sadie got so scared she nearly fainted 'erself! We heard her frettin' about and when I went to check on her, I saw how bad the fire had gotten. Our kitchen was fully engulfed in flames. Mom told me to take Sadie out as far away as I could, and to take Toby, my litle brother, with me. She was gonna try'en get back in. She had the only copies of our family pi'tures that she just couldn't live without locked in a box under the kitchen sink. I tried to get her out, but she wasn't havin' it. Mom always was stubborn like that..."

"I'm so sorry..." Gabriella stated, beginning to understand just how is mother died.

Trevor came to a halt. She looked up. He had stopped Sadie just behind the silo. The walk back up to the cottage was only a few yards.

"There ain't nothin' to be sorry about. It ain't like you started that fire. No one coulda known that somethin' terrible was gonna come out of a barn fire." Trevor jumped down from Sadie and helped Gabriella off.

"I should be the one apologizin'. Borin' into you with my story. I'm sure you have much better things to do than listen to the words of some stranger."

Gabriella smiled sweetly, "Really, Trevor, it's okay. I'm glad I found a friend out here."

"Sure thing. Nice to meet you..."

"Gabriella. Gabriella Montez."

Trevor saddled up staring down at her from atop the horse.

"So I'll see you around?" She said, her eyes glimmering with the light of a newfound friendship blooming.

"'Course. Prob'ly lots more than you're expecting. My family owns the house about two miles from here. Just down the road. Now, I better get goin'. Sadie is lookin' mighty hungry, and I think that rain's about to fall."

Gabriella looked up at the sky, which was now almost black. She had totally forgotten why Trevor had offered her the ride in the first place.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Gabriella Montez." With that, he reached for her hand and kissed the top sweetly, before riding off, leaving Gabriella staring back at him as he rode into the distance.

_I watched from a distance as you  
made life your own,  
every sky was your own kind of blue.  
And I wanted to know  
how that would feel,  
and you made it so real.  
You showed me something that I couldn't see.  
You opened my eyes and you made me believe. _

"No...the pleasure was _all_ mine."

_Baby you showed me what living is for.  
I don't wanna hide anymore!  
You make me crazier, crazier, crazier_...

--

**Note: **Anyone have any suggestions for country-esque songs to use?


	5. Stay

**NOTE:** This chapter in contrast with the last one is extremely long. Enjoy! And don't forget to check the profile for the outfits in this chapter.

---

**Stay**

Troy stared out the cracked bedroom window and watched as his girlfriend stared back at the boy who had just kissed her hand. His _girlfriend's_ hand.

Troy gulped, knowing that he was just overreacting. _Who cares?! Aren't men in the country supposed to have some sort of 'southern hospitality'? That's all it was...southern hospitality._

He tried to calm himself down by finishing unpacking his bag, folding and re-folding his sweaters and t-shirts into small pressed squares that he stacked in the bottom drawer of the antique dresser.

Southern hospitality...

Chad walked into the room that he was sharing with Troy and Ryan, throwing his wet towel onto the twin bed that he had earlier designated for himself. He grinned towards Troy.

"Hey man, Ry and I just took a dip into the creek in the forest in the back. You'd love it! Not too cold, not too deep. It's the best of both worlds!"

Troy deadpanned. "Chad, I thought we talked about this before. No quoting hillbilly lyrics-"

"Hey, man we're in the country... might as well!" When Chad noticed that Troy wasn't smiling as usual, he realized that something was wrong. "Dude, what's bugging ya?"

"Take a look for yourself," Troy muttered in monotone. Chad shrugged, ambling towards the window and cocking his head to the side.

Chad furrowed his brows. "Two chickens fightin' over a wishbone?"

"No, Chad. Look again."

Chad scratched his afro in puzzlement. His eyes flew to a horse stationed at the front entrance of the house and the empty saddle on the horse's back.

"Uh... there's a horse taking a crap on the Evan's porch."

Rolling his eyes, Troy stood up from his bed and moved towards the window, preparing to point at his girlfriend and the extremely friendly cowboy.

"Right over there," Troy pointed his index finger in the spot where Gabriella was at - only to find her and the hospitable boy gone.

"What the-" He was cut off by the sound of the slam of the cottage door.

"Dude, unless you have anything against horses relieving themselves-"

"No, it's not that!" Troy cut in, his eyes flying outside his door and towards the stairs leading to the family room. "Just never mind..."

--

The next morning, Troy woke up groggily to the sound of a squawking rooster and the sound of plates clinking against silverware.

Rolling over, Troy suddenly heard Chad fall to the floor and off his bed.

"Dude..." Chad mumbled suddenly, "You hear that?"

"Hear what? And don't you dare say chickens fighting over a wishbone, or I'll-"

Chad groaned as he stood up, "No, no, not that! I hear a...guy's voice."

Troy shot up immediately. "It's not Mr. Evans or Ry...Wait, who am I kidding?! Ryan doesn't sound like a dude!"

Both boys overheard the commotion inside the family room and exited the boys' room to see what was going on. Troy's eyes grew wide as his gaze fell on Gabriella and the cowboy he saw earlier, his arm linking hers as the stood in the doorway, chatting with Mrs. Evans. Chad, seemingly oblivious to the sight, just grinned.

"Awesome, we have a guest!" Chad exclaimed, maneuvering towards the newbie, apparently unaware that he was still in only his boxer shorts. "Hola, mi llamo es Chad!

Ryan, who had somehow gravitated towards Chad tilted his head in a confused manner. "Your llama is Chad?"

"Darn, too bad we don't have any llamas 'round here," Trevor joked good naturedly. "I'm Trevor - Trevor Macuddy. I live extremely close to ya'll. Me and Gabriella were just on our way out."

Gabriella just giggled, her arm still locked with his. She didn't recognize Troy's presence right next to her.

"Trevor was on his way out to pluck some eggs. I offered to help him out. I promise I'll bring you guys back a few," She said with a smile.

Taylor, standing across from Gabriella, rose an eyebrow as she shot Gabriella a skeptical look. Gabriella saw the gaze, but returned a confused look towards Taylor, not understanding Taylor's contemptuous look.

Troy just crossed his arms over his stomach uncomfortably. He honestly didn't know how to react. His male instincts urged him to walk over there and wrap his arms around her possessively, just as a _warning_ to Trevor to not get any ideas. But then the sensible part of his mind knew it was too cocky and chauvinistic to do, especially since she had run out _because _of him in the first place.

Chad smiled warmly, high-fiving Trevor. "Chad. Nice to meet ya, man." His head turned, spotting Troy. "Oh yeah, and this is Troy-"

Several heads turned to see him standing in the background, looking rather awkward and out of place. Gabriella dropped her hands to her side immediately in alert. Taylor, as observant as always, just smirked and placed her hands on her hips, awaiting the drama to unfold. Ryan and Chad, as the typical males, didn't notice a single thing and continued to grin like oblivious dumbasses.

"Nice to meet ya," Trevor greeted him with a wave. Troy just nodded his head in acknowledgement. An awkward silence followed until Ryan broke it.

"Hey, so... anyone wanna go skinny dipping in the lake with me at midnight?"

Five pairs of eyes stared at him in bewilderment. Luckily for Ryan, Mr. Evans finally entered the room. Following after Mr. Evans was a pissed looking Sharpay, clad in yet another different designer outfit - a Max Azria pleated jersey bubble dress in green, complimented by a pair of Dolce & Gabbana silver snakeskin pumps. Her hair was in a curled ponytail, pinned to the side by a flower-shaped silver Tiffany clip. She looked impatient and aggravated - everyone assumed that she was probably complaining about the cottage and how it didn't live up to her high expectations. Typical Sharpay.

Mr. Evans on the other hand smiled brightly as she noticed Trevor in the middle of the room.

"Trevor?" He exclaimed questioningly, flashing his perfectly white teeth. "Is that you? "

Trevor smiled brightly, taking a few steps toward Mr. Evans. "Frank! My God, it's been too long!" He hugged him tightly.

"Indeed, it certainly has!" Mr. Evans smiled as his wife walked over to stand next to him, shaking Trevor's hand in greeting.

"How's it been going?" Mr. Evans asked curiously. "I heard about your mother, son. We're all terribly sorry about it. Marylin was a wonderful woman."

Trevor nodded his head solemnly. "My whole family is still a little shaky... It's been a pretty darn tough year."

"Psh, totally!" Ryan butted in. "I mean... with the burning economy and all!"

Once again, eight pairs of eyes were situated on Ryan. Troy just rolled his eyes, feeling sorry for the poor guy - he had the worst luck at being a conversationalist. In addition to having inappropriate timing, often times his comments were also inappropriate or irrevlevant.

"Huh?" The second dumb musketeer with the afro put in. "What's wrong with the economy?"

Taylor just let out a dramatic sigh, rubbing her temple out of astonishment for her boyfriend's stupidity.

"Nothing, Chad," She snapped sharply. "Nothing. At. All."

"Dude, I thought you watched Obama's campaigns all the time! Did you really not pick up on anything he said bout the economy?" Troy asked.

Chad stared at Troy. "Dude, you actually think I LISTEN when he talks? I mean, I just like to look at him and be like, 'Hollah! Obama's my llama! Represent, dawg!'. Cuz the man's like GOD. Everyone can interpret his word for themselves! And as a fellow bl-"

"How 'bout we all go into the dining room?" Mrs. Evans cut him off, hoping to divert the topic of the conversation further from politics - partly because it was uncomfortable talking about and partly because Chad was making an idiot out of himself.

Chad just narrowed his eyes. "Psh, you're just sayin' that cuz you _is_ a Republican!"

Taylor rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's horrible grammar and snapped at him warningly, "Chad, shut the fu-"

"NO, TAYLOR! I AIN'T GONNA STAND FOR THIS! I MEAN, I HEARD THAT SOUTHERNERS WERE ALL REPUBLICANS, BUT I DIDN'T THINK THE EVANS WERE!" Chad screamed, on the verge of tears. His gaze flew to Sharpay and he pointed his index finger at her. "SHARPAY! I BET SHE DOESN'T BELIEVE IN GLOBAL WARMING SO THAT'S WHY SHE KEEPS POLLUTING THE WORLD WITH HER PERFUME!"

"THANK YOU!" Ryan scream maniacally. "PRAISE THE LORD. A SAVIOR IS BORN! FINALLY, SOMEONE WHO _UNDERSTANDS."_

"HELLS YEAH, I UNDERSTAND!" Chad screamed, jumping on the couch and pumping his fist into the air. "YA KNOW WHAT? SCREW THE DEMOCRAT AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. I'M GONNA ESTABLISH MY OWN PARTY! IT'S CALLED CHADISM. AND THIS POLITICAL PARTY SURE LOVES TO PARTY! WOOO, SECULAR POWER, MAWN!"

Gabriella flashed Trevor an apologetic look. "Trevor, I'm so sorry... he's... this isn't... it's not _usually_ like this."

"Oh, _no_. It's actually _always_ like this," Taylor corrected her bitterly. "Escape while you can, cow boy. Don't get sucked into this madness."

"You're a fucking RETARD, Danforth!" Sharpay screamed insanely loudly, "AND GET THE FUCK OFF MY COUCH!"

"_Our_ COUCH," Ryan snapped. "And don't you question our savior! All hail Chad! He speaks the truth and nothing but the truth!"

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? HE'S PROBABLY THE ONLY PERSON ON THIS EARTH WHO'S _DUMBER_ THAN YOU ARE, YOU DUMB FUCK." Sharpay shouted angrily, pushing her brother into a nearby vase, knocking it down to the ground.

Trevor's mouth hung open as he turned to Gabriella. "Oh my Lord, _THAT'S_ Sharpay Evans?"

Gabriella frowned but nodded her head. "Yeah... why?"

"Oh my God," deadpanned Trevor. "I- I need to get out of here. I'm so sorry Gabriella, but I just need to leave. It really was a pleasure but, uh...maybe another time-"

"Huh?" Gabriella looked up at him with puzzlement written all over her face. "Oh, uh... bye?"

She wasn't sure if he even heard what she said because by the time she started the sentence, he was halfway out the door.

Taylor just grinned ear to ear, shaking her head in pleasure. "Well, what do you know... it takes a blonde demon to scare this kid away. Damn, he's smart."

----

"_Let's have some fun, this beat is sick! I wanna take a ride on your disco stick!"_ Ryan sung as he sat himself down on the chair in the dining room.

"Pass me the chicken, Danforth," Sharpay gritted her teeth. Chad narrowed his eyes.

"Why should I? You're _Republican_."

Sharpay stared at him oddly. "Um, first of all, no I'm not. Second of all, there's nothing wrong with Republicans-" Chad fake-coughed to interrupt her, but Sharpay just shot him an annoyed glare. "Stop that, you dumbass. Third of all, get over yourself AND PASS ME THE DAMN CHICKEN."

"YA'LL PROBABLY KILLED ONE OF THE CHICKENS THAT WAS FIGHTING OVER A WISHBONE FOR DINNER!" Chad cried out in a loud voice.

"_Don't think too much! Just wuss that thing! I wanna take a ride on your-"_

"SHUT THE FUCK UP," Sharpay spat in Ryan's face. "Stop ruining an amazing song, okay? I already told you, only _I'm_ allowed to sing Lady Gaga's songs."

Gabriella sighed in response to the banter at the dinner table. Mrs. Evans shot her a sympathetic look. Gabriella sat glumly at the table, still pondering over Trevor's sudden retreat. There was an empty space next to her since Troy had decided that it was better if he gave Gabriella her space and took the seat next to the empty seat instead. Mrs. Evans gladly filled in the empty gap as she placed a carefully made salad on the table and prepared a sugar-coated speech to calm everyone down. Not only that, but she wanted her children's friends to be under the impression that she was aware of their antics and had the authority to discipline them.

"All right kids, that's enough! I don't want to hear anymore cursing from ANY of you!" She scolded them sternly. "You need to learn to respect each other. We're going to enjoy our dinner meal without all this ruckus. There's no need to shout at each other."

"And I firmly agree with Mrs. Evans," Taylor responded professionally, placing a napkin on her lap. "Shall we begin the meal?"

"I do believe we need to say our grace before we begin," Mr. Evans smiled.

Sharpay rolled her eyes, "Oh, give me a _break_. Just give me my food, I'm going to lock my door so that everyone leaves me the hell alone for the rest of the evening."

"Way to be emo, sis."

"SHUT UP, RYAN!"

"I don't think the locks on the doors even work," Troy mumbled under his breath.

Sharpay, who had ears like a hawk, overheard. "YOU KNOW WHAT, TROY? YOU'RE RIGHT! THIS GOD DAMN PLACE IS _SO _HORRIBLE AND RUNDOWN THAT _NOTHING_ WORKS!"

"Geez, Sharpay. Your family is so dysfunctional!" Chad commented, turning to Ryan. "Is this what happens at every dinner?"

Ryan shrugged. "Oh, not really. We don't have family dinners that often so Shar and I just eat in our rooms."

Gabriella frowned. "That doesn't sound too fun."

"Are you kidding? I love it! I get to play World of Warcraft AND eat my chef's amazing food! It's like heaven on earth for me!"

"..."

"..."

"Wow, this dinner just became awkward to a whole new level!"

--

"Pst... compact disc, do you read me?"

Chad, who was sleeping soundly in his bed, awoke out of fright. He glanced down at his vibrating pillow, pulling out a walkie talkie that had been placed beneath his pillow. He stared down at it in confusion. What the hell? That wasn't there when he first went to sleep...

"Uh, hello?" Chad whispered into the walkie talkie, careful not to wake up anyone else in the room.

"Compact disc, this is reply. Do you read me?"

Chad blinked in the darkness. "Uh, roger that?"

"Compact disc, meet me in the backyard at four o clock-"

"Ryan?" Chad mumbled into the walkie talkie in drowsiness. "What the fuck are you doing, man."

"Shh! From now on, you only refer to me as _reply_."

"Huh?" His eyes flew towards Ryan's empty bed. "Dude, where are you? And why was there a walkie talkie under my pillow?"

"Roger that, compact disc. I was bored and I found these old walkie talkies Shar and I used to use here back when we were kids. I was gonna scare you!"

"Why do you keep saying compact disc?"

"That's your codename."

"What the hell? Dude, can't you do this in the morning? I mean, for all I know those crazy Republicans will make us milk the cows in the mornin'!"

"Compact disc, my family doesn't give a shit about politics so shut the hell up. And we're not hillbillies!"

"Reply, POLITICS IS MY LIFE! I'MA BE THE NEXT OBAMA!"

"Dude, it's not even about that! You don't know one god damn thing about politics! Ya know... today when I said that I supported your stupid dream of making your own party... yeah, well... I think it was just a spur of the moment kinda thing."

"What? I can't hear you, it's all staticy!"

Troy sat up in his bed, rubbing his temple as he let out a groan.

"Chad. What the fuck are you doing? It's 3 in the morning."

"Hey, is that Tuberculosis talking? HEY TUBERCULOSIS, THIS IS REPLY. DO YOU READ ME?"

Troy's eyes flew towards Chad, the walkie talkie, and Ryan's empty bed. He shook his head.

"You know what, I don't even wanna know." And with that, he slipped under the covers once again, hoping to block out the noise of his friends' chatter.

Once Chad heard Troy's steady breaths, he whispered quietly into the walkie talkie. "How'd you even come up with the codenames?"

"Oh, I googled everyone's initials and the first thing that popped up became the codename. Get this, Shar is _Sony Ericson._ Har. Har!"

"Four o' clock. Got it." Chad grumbled. And with that, he turned off the walkie talkie and fell back on his bed into a deep and well needed slumber.

--

Gabriella walked down the creaky stairs quietly in her dark-wash skinny jeans and a baggy gray, red, and white "East High" sweat shirt. Her navy blue Havanas flopped against the stairs as she walked.

Trevor had just called, asking her if she wanted to go riding with him. He said his brother Toby wouldn't mind lending her his horse, Applejax, to go riding on. She knew she couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn how to ride.

_I've been sitting here staring at the clock on the wall  
And I've been laying here praying, praying he won't call  
It's just another call from home  
And you'll get it and be gone and I'll be crying_

_  
_Gabriella quietly slipped through the door, unnoticed by Mr. and Mrs. Evans, who were cuddled up on the old sofa near the dining room table. She slipped one of the keys hanging on a hook near the door into her Old Navy canvas bag that was slung over her shoulders, and began to make the trek down the gravel driveway and onto the dirt road.

Just then, she saw a clunky red pick-up truck bumping its way toward her. She quickly moved toward the guard rail along the edge of the road to avoid being crushed. Surprisingly enough, however, the truck stopped in front of her, and driving it was none other than Trevor Macuddy.

"Now, I wasn't gonna make someone as lovely as yer'self walk all th'way to my house. Why, that'd be jus' plain ungentlemanly of me!"

Gabriella smiled, grateful that she didn't have to walk those miles to his house, "Thanks, Trev."

Trevor got out to open the door for her, but she was already reaching. Their hands touched, electricity shooting through their veins. Gabriella looked up at Trevor. Had he always had such gorgeous green eyes? Suddenly, they both pulled away, and awkward silence building between them.

_But I'll be left here waiting with my heart on my sleeve  
Oh, for the next time we'll be here_

_  
_"Th-thanks," she stuttered, "but I got it."

Trevor smiled weakly, "Sure thing, Gabriella."

_Seems like a million years and I think I'm dying  
What do I have to do to make you see he can't love you like me?_

As they bounced along in the cab of the old red pick-up, Trevor began asking her questions.

"Favorite band?"

"Definitely Paramore, by far. But No Doubt comes in close second..."

"Favorite color?"

"Purple."

"Siblings?"

"A half-brother, Jacob, on my dad's side. He was just born. Oh, and a half-sister Liberty Belle, but we just call her Libby now. They both live with my father...It's a long complicated story."

"Well, maybe some other time..."

Gabriella noticed that they were pulling into a gravel driveway next to a large barnhouse.

"The horses are around back," Trevor said, putting the car in 'park' and hopping down. He jumped over the back of the car and helped her out of the passenger side.

Troy stared at his feet and sighed. How could she be leaving with him _again_?

_I mean, it's not like I have any right to tell her who she can see and when she can go see him, but still..._ Troy thought to himself, _I'm her boyfriend!_

Troy stood up and paced back and forth. He had changed out of his pajamas, opting for a more casual look in jeans and an American Eagle t-shirt. He had been planning on going over to Gabriella's room and asking her for forgiveness - _begging_ her if he had to.

_And I'll be begging you, baby, beg you not to leave  
But I'll be left here waiting with my heart on my sleeve_

Apparently, Gabriella had _better_ things to do. He had watched her leave from the top of the stairs, watched her check her phone, and studied her as she giggled at his_ suuuuper_ funny text-message joke. He couldn't believe that Gabriella would just leave like that - and for someone she had met just a few days ago!

_What do I have to do to make you see he can't love you like me?  
Why don't you stay? I'm down on my knees  
I'm so tired of being lonely, don't I give you what you need?  
When he calls you to go_

As Troy slowly descended the stairs, he walked in on Mr. and Mrs. Evans getting frisky on the floor near the sofa. His shirt was off, her skirt was down, and they both were moaning for more. As quietly as possible, Troy slipped out the door, trying to erase that nasty mental picture from his mind. However, one thought kept crossing his mind - they loved each other so much after all of these years. Gabriella was already drifting away after only a few years. Where would they be five years in the future? Would she be romping in the field with Trevor and their two perfectly hillbilly children?, or would Troy and Gabriella be living together in a quaint little apartment in downtown Albuquerque?

_There is one thing you should know  
We don't have to live this way, baby, why don't you stay?_

Their future was beginning to become very uncertain in Troy's eyes - and he wasn't enjoying it. Not one bit.

_I can't waste another minute after all that I've put in it  
I've given you my best, why does he get the best of you?_

**---**

"Chad, is it just me or... has Troy been acting a tad bit strange lately?" Taylor asked her boyfriend as she sat at the dining table, munching on a peanut butter sandwich she had made herself for lunch. She actually served a plate of them for lunch, much to the pleasure of everyone but Sharpay. Sharpay dramatically claimed that she would rather die than eat those 'disgusting, revolting, hand-made sandwiches' and stalked back towards her quarters, locking the door almost immediately.

Chad looked up, his face covered in peanut butter from his messy eating habits. His brown eyes stared innocently towards Taylor's.

"Uh... nope, he seems perfectly fine to me."

Taylor rose an eyebrow, her head turning towards the window as she watched Troy dolefully throw pebbles into the small pond in the backyard, his shoulders hunched forward and his head staring down at his Nike sneakers.

"Yeah, he seems to be pretty damn cheery, all right." Taylor muttered sarcastically. "Chad, are you really this oblivious to your surroundings or are you just that stupid?"

Chad let out a groan, reaching for a napkin to wipe his chin. "Woman, why must you challenge me to think while I'm eating lunch! I thought you didn't even wanna talk to me after I embarrassed you in front of your parents! WHY THE HELL WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE?"

Taylor frowned, feeling the jab sink in painfully. "Well... FINE. If you don't want me to speak to you, I won't!" She stood up, leaving her uneaten sandwhich on the plate as she headed towards the exit. Before leaving the room, she turned around to have her last word. "But let me just warn you that our best friends are inevitably heading for a pretty darn big fall and as the dutiful, loyal best friends it will be our obligation to deal with those heartbroken, horomonal teenagers-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Chad shooed her out of the room before she could continue her rant. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

Just as Taylor left the room, Ryan strolled in, whistling the familiar tune of 'Waking Up In Vegas' by Katy Perry. Upon spotting Chad eating a sandwich, he cheerfully waved to him and took the seat next to him.

"Hey, Chad! You didn't show up so I thought I'd come to you!"

Chad let out an annoyed groan. "Why can't anyone let me finish and enjoy my god damn sandwich?"

"Screw the sandwich, I found buried treasure in the backyard, dude!" Ryan exclaimed excitedly, using his fingers to drum against the table anxiously. Chad's eyes nearly popped out of its sockets at the mention of 'buried treasure.' Instantly, he dropped his sandwich and shifted himself in his seat to face Ryan.

"Did you say treasure? Like Pirates? Perhaps from the Caribbean? The ones that steal illegal goods and go like, 'Arr, matey!'?" Chad asked excitedly, his imagination running wild with ideas.

"Oh... uh... in case you didn't notice, Tennessee is nowhere near the Caribbean nor any other sea for that matter. I highly doubt there would be pirates here."

"Damn... so why'd you say something bout buried treasure?"

"Oh! THAT'S what I wanted to tell you!" Ryan stated, suddenly remembering his train of thought. "Yeah, so... I was taking a late night walk outside cuz I couldn't sleep. Then I ran into Trevor and he had the coolest cowboy boots and I was like, 'No way man, where'd you get those?' He said he got a REALLY good deal at Hilly Billy Style Fashions just down the road-"

"Ryan," Chad whined. "Don't go off topic!"

"Oh..." Ryan's cheeks flushed red. "Ha-ha. Yeah. Sorry bout that. Anyway, he started asking me all these questions bout Troy and-"

"I don't give a damn bout Troy boy! Skip to the interesting part!"

"Oh, well I did think this part was pretty interesting, but yeah... okay! So after we said goodbye, I was trying to sneak in through the backdoors cuz I was pretty sure I locked the front door before I left. And that was when..."

"When..." Chad supplied anxiously. "You discovered a pot of gold on the ground from leprechauns? Boy oh boy, it certainly is well past St. Patrick's day, ain't it?"

"Oh, no! Then I tripped cuz there was a slight hole in the ground. I thought that was a little odd, but I didn't think much of it until I stepped on something harder a few steps after. I think Dixon was digging something. You know them doggies have an amazing sense of smell!"

Chad nodded. "So... you dug up a buried chest?" Chad grinned excitedly. "WHERE IS IT, MAN? DON'T HIDE IT!"

"Err... well... no. I was scared to get my nails dirty cuz I had no shovel with me, so that was when I found some walkie talkie's and decided to have fun with it and told you to meet me there today so we can dig it up."

Chad blinked. "Dude, why did you go through all that trouble for nothing when you coulda just told me and I'd be up in a second."

Ryan shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, I'm nocturnal, what else can I say? Everyone else was asleep and I needed some fun!"

"A'ight, Reply. Off we mateys go to dig us up some treasure!"


	6. Annie's Song

**Annie's Song**

Gabriella's hair blew back behind her as Applejax, Toby's magnificent black horse, flew past Sadie Rose, leaving Trevor's mouth agape.

"I think I'm getting pretty good at this, huh?" Gabriella said with a smile as Trevor picked up speed, catching up with Gabriella.

Trevor nodded, tipping his white cowboy hat to Gabriella, "Might be the best beginning equestrian, if I ever saw one."

She sighed, breathing in the sweet country air as the trotted past a timid river flowing through the brush. She couldn't believe how incredible the scenery was around that place. Everything was so _simple_. No horns honking, no billboards stuck in between the trees, no fifteen-story buildings, no city lights. There was nothing but stars, sky, and the great outdoors.

_You fill up my senses  
Like a night in a forest  
Like a mountain in springtime_

"Let's take a break," Trevor said, starting towards a clearing in the meadow.

Gabriella hopped off of Applejax and led him to a nearby tree, where she tied the reigns around the tree trunk, so that he wouldn't wander off while she was looking. Trevor tied Sadie to another tree and then linked arms with Gabriella, leading her to the center of the meadow, where he had laid out a red-and-white checked blanket and a picnic basket.

"What's all this?" Gabriella asked, feeling him take her hand, helping her to sit down.

_Like a walk in the rain  
Like a storm in the desert  
Like a sleepy blue ocean_

He sat down on the blanket across from her and opened the basket.

"I figured you'd be fairly hungry by the time we got out here. I figured lunch'd be mighty tasty out here in the open." He began to take out an assortment of sandwiches wrapped in plastic, as well as a jar of homemade applesauce, two glasses, a plastic container of cider, a jar of salsa, and a bag of Tostitos.

Gabriella's eyes went wide. "Wow, Trev. This looks... amazing."

"Thank you, kindly, ma'am," He replied as he set out the glasses and began to pour her some cider.

Then there was silence. She reached for her glass, just as he was pulling away, and she felt that same bolt of electricity once again. This time, neither of them pulled away. Trevor slowly reached for her hand, cradling it in his.

_You fill up my senses  
Come fill me again_

_  
_

Gabriella pulled away suddenly. "Trevor," she began, "You're very sweet, but I...I have a boyfriend. Troy."

Trevor hesitated, "I-I know. I could tell from the way he was glaring at me yesterday. I-I wasn't trying to...I mean, if you thought I was...uh, forget it. We're just friends here. That's all we are."

"Totally," Gabriella said, trying to force a smile. "Thanks again for the lunch, by the way. This applesauce is delicious."

"It's my mom's old recipe. She was always one for homemade goods. Never bought anything prepackaged." He replied, letting go of Gabriella's hand.

"Well, I'm sure Marylin was a fine homemaker, if I do say so myself."

"She certainly was..."

_---_

A few hours later, Trevor pulled into the driveway of the Evan's cottage.

"Uh, Trevor. I forgot to ask you - what happened that made you run out the other day?"

"Oh that?" Trevor laughed awkwardly, "Me and Sharpay...we go waaay back. Waaaay way back."

"Well, anyways, thanks so much for teaching me how to ride, Trev," Gabriella said, leaning towards him inside the cab of the car to give him a hug.

"No problem, Gabriella. The pleasure was all mine."

Gabriella turned around and opened the door to get out, but Trevor grabbed her by the arm.

"Uh, Gabriella? I was wondering...I mean, I know that we're just friends, and I have no problem with that...But I was wondering if, uh...Well, there's this County Fair in a few days. It's just a whole bunch of people from around town comin' together, selling things, and at the end of the night, there's this big party. It's, uh...It's at the Jenkins's barn and I go ever' year. But I was wondering if you...well, uh...if you'd come with me?"

She hesitated. Was this like a date? No. It couldn't be. He said he was okay with the whole just friends thing.

"Sure, I mean...of course. I'd love to go with you." Gabriella replied, giving him a small smile.

Trevor gave a sigh of relief, "Thank'ya pretty lady. So, I'll pick you up around 7 on Sund'y night?"

"Sounds like a plan!"

Gabriella turned to give him another hug, but before she knew what she was doing, she leaned in towards him and he leaned in, too. Before she had time to think, he was cradling her head in his hands, she was wrapping her arms around his neck,and they were both kissing with passion inside the small cab of the car.

When they pulled away, their eyes were both begging for more.

"I should get going..." Gabriella said quickly, hopping out. "Thanks for the ride."

_Come let me love you,  
let me give my life to you  
let me drown in your laughter,  
let me die in your arms  
let me lay down beside you,  
let me always be with you  
come let me love you,  
come love me again._

Sunday morning, Sharpay strutted up to Gabriella, who was busy trying to find something descent to wear to the 18th Annual Blossom Valley County Fair.

"So...I hear you're going out with that Macuddy kid tonight," Sharpay said, leaning against the wall as she crossed her arms over the dress she'd just changed into - the 'Kristy' style, haze jersey halter dress by Revolver.

"It's not a date," Gabriella sighed as she held up a simple black H&M dress, checking herself in the mirror.

Sharpay raised an eyebrow, "Then why do you care so much about what you're going to wear?"

"Says the girl who changes outfits twelve times a day!" Gabriella said as she threw the dress onto her bed, falling down on top of it.

"Okay, well...true. But...still. If you're gonna get all dolled up for this, at least let the master help."

Gabriella raised an eyebrow, but before she knew what was happening, Sharpay had flung open her open suitcase of "emergency" outfits, and had started throwing every type of clothing out from it.

"HERE!" She said finally, pulling out a dress that still had the tag on it. "It's perfect."

In one of Sharpay's hands was a Free People mustard-colored poppy printed halter dress, in the other, a pair of bronze-colored suede-and-raffia Prada wedges.

"I never wore this dress," Sharpay inquired, narrowing her eyes at the outift in her hand, "and I only wore the shoes once, when Mom made me go outside to get the newspaper from the mailbox three years ago. I'm sure they'll fit you."

"Sharpay...I couldn't wear that stuff," Gabriella stammered as Sharpay threw the dress in her face. "It's so...luxurious."

"Exactly. Why do you think I have them?" She scoffed, her voice becoming extremely snarky.

"A-Are you sure?" Gabriella asked. Sharpay nodded, a small smile spreading across her face.

"Thank you _sooo_ much, Shar! I can't thank you enough!"

"Psh...I know."

---

Troy stared ahead to see his girlfriend in a dress he had never seen before, ready to head out the door. _Holy crap, is she going out again with that Trevor guy? _He thought to himself. He snuck a peak outside the window and sure enough, there was Trevor dressed somewhere in between casually and formally outside the cottage door. He shook his head out of pure jealousy and marched towards the door before Gabriella could walk out.

"Gabriella!" He called out right as her hand was pressed on the handle. She swirled around immediately, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Hey," He whispered, realizing this was the first time he had spoken to her since she ran out on him a couple of days back. "Where are you going?"

Gabriella attempted to swallow the lump that formed at her throat. "I'm, uh... Trevor invited me to a town carnival. I was going to go check it out."

As much as he wanted to interrogate her further, he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

They stood there in awkward silence for a few moments, before Gabriella finally turned towards the stairs, walking down them as fast as she could in the clunky-but-comfortable wedges Sharpay had let her borrow.

"I should get going..." She said when she got to the bottom of the stairs, checking her newly curled hair in the mirror. Sharpay had curled it with a huge barrel curling iron and then braided two strands, pulling them back and tieing them together behind Gabriella's head with a yellow ribbon - 'country sheek' she had called it. "Trev is waiting with the truck."

_Trev? Since when was he 'Trev'? _Troy thought to himself, raising an eyebrow. He crossed his arm, leaning against the wooden panelling of the wall. "Have a nice night, Gabriella."

She smiled into the mirror. Troy wasn't being jealous, like she thought he would be. But when she turned around to face him, he had already excused himself, the door of his bedroom shut.

"Thanks, Troy..."

And with that, she ran outside, throwing herself onto Trevor and giving him a huge bear hug.

"My, oh my, don't you look fine? Mighty pretty tonight, Gabriella. I've never seen ya' like this b'fore..." Trevor said in awe as they split. He took her hand, raised it in the air, and watched as she spun around twice.

"Sharpay did everything. Y'know, I can't stand that girl, but when she wants to be, she can really do a lot of good..." Gabriella smiled as Trevor led her to the truck, helping her into it's cab.

Once Trevor was seated and buckled into the truck, he gave Gabriella a lingering once over, making her whole body tingle. "Well, she did do I mighty fine job..."

Gabriella hopped out of the truck as Trevor put it into 'park'.

"'Ere we are," Trevor said with a smile as he took her hand and led her toward a huge barn covered in sparkling white christmas lights and chinese paper lanterns. She could hear louding shouting and laughing, as well as fiddling coming from the inside. Glass was breaking and she could see hay being piled up in the loft by a fieldhand through the upper window.

She thought it was pretty from the outside, but when she walked in, she was shocked. Twinkling white lights, like the ones outside, were strung from rafter to rafter, giving the illusion of a sky full of stars. White vanilla-and-lavendar scented candles wrapped in brown paper bags dotted the old-style wooden bar that was pushed off to one side, while wooden tables and barrel-chairs were strewn around a just-shined-but-scuffed dancefloor. A raised wooden stage surrounded by hay bales was in the back, directly in front of the dancefloor. It was perfectly country, but positively gorgeous.

"I hope you'll like it..." Trevor started, leading her to a table, "'cuz I know I sure do."

Just then, a man with dark auburn hair and a little boy with dirty-blonde hair the same color as Trevor's came running towards their table. The little boy jumped onto Trevor, almost knocking him off his feet.

"Heeeeey! Bud, c'mon now!" Trevor said, peeling the child off of him.

"Is this yer' girlfriend?" The little boy said, making Gabriella blush.

Before Trevor could respond, the man with the auburn hair and the brown cowboy hat finally caught up to the boy, grabbing him and flipping him up onto his shoulders.

"Now," the man started, "Toby, are you buggin' yer' big brother?"

"Nuh uh!" Toby shouted, pulling at his fathers' hair.

Gabriella stood up, moving protectivly towards Trevor, "Are these..."

"My family? Yeah... This is Toby, my little brother, and this is Clint, my dad."

Gabriella went to go shake his hand, but the man pulled her into a big hug, somehow keeping Toby steady on his shoulders while pulling Gabriella in. A shocked Gabriella froze in his hug, not sure if she should hug the strange man or not.

"Gabriella? My God, yer' even prettier than Trevor described you to be!" Clint shouted, smiling.

Gabriella flushed, murmuring her thanks. While all the compliments resulted in butterflies at the pit of the stomach, it also sent a shot of guilt also. As much as she wanted to convince herself this wasn't a date, she knew deep inside that it also wasn't a so-called 'get together' with a 'friend'.

"Hey," Toby called out, his green eyes sparkling in the light. "Trev, wanna come over to tha' booth over there?"

Gabriella could see Toby's admiration for Trevor just by looking in his eyes. She smiled to herself, thinking it was absolutely adorable.

Trevor instantly glanced at Gabriella. "Hey Toby, ya' don't mind if Gabriella tags along, eh?"

Toby instantly shook his head no, grinning. "Everyone can come! C'mon, I wanna win myself a stuffed cow!"

Trevor chuckled to himself at Toby's eagerness, linking his arm with Gabriella's as they followed the bouncing child to the booth.

"So," Gabriella began. "Are you going to tell me what exactly happened with you and Sharpay?"

Trevor took a deep breath, preparing himself for traveling along memory lane. "A'ight, if ya really wanna know. Brace yerr-self, it ain't a pretty story."

"Trust me, I've been in close proximity with her for years now. I think I'm prepared. I've already had my crash course in Sharpay-etiquette." Gabriella smiled, pushing Trevor playfully with her free hand.

"When we were four or five, her family started coming to Cleo's cottage. Since my family lived so close, my parents and I welcomed them with open arms. Frank was so nice to my parents, and they hit it off right away. When Frank and Janice, Sharpay's mom, would come over to our place for lunch or dinner, they would always bring Sharpay. They would bring Ryan too, but Ryan had a speech problem up until he was five so he could never really talk properly... Anyway, Sharpay would come over and we would play in my room while our parents talked downstairs. At first she was nice, but every summer after that, she would get worse and worse. When we were six, she ripped out a patch of my hair because I didn't have the 'Princess Barbie' she claimed she had left at my house the previous summer. When we were seven or eight, when Ryan started tagging along, she broke my brand new GI Joe action figure and ripped apart my favorite books because 'reading was lame'. She spat in my face, called me a loser, kicked me, punched me in the mouth...SHE EVEN KNOCKED OUT TWO OF MY TEETH! That girl is crazy...When I saw her again...I just couldn't deal with it. I had to get out. Brought back to many memories. Thankfully, I don't think she or Ryan remember me, so at least I have that cover..."

"Wow," Gabriella said, her jaw hitting the floor, "I knew she was cruel...but this...this is taking it to a WHOLE 'nother level!"

"Well... y'know how it is. Did you say something about Sharpay helping you get ready?" Trevor frowned, staring at her attire. "You have a very pretty necklace, by the way."

"Thanks!" Gabriella smiled. "And uh... yeah she did, actually. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to..." _Blackmail me? Demand something in return?_

"Let's not think about that right now," Trevor winked. "Now c'mon, miss, I'm set on winning you something from the booth."

Gabriella giggled, lacing her arm with his as they both followed after Toby. Gabriella walked the exact road she shouldn't have taken.


	7. It's Midnight, Cinderella

**NOTE:** As hard as it may be for everyone to handle the Trevor-Gabriella drama, just know that this _is _a Troyella story and this is merely part of the plot. There are many stories out there about Troy cheating, but not a lot (atleast from what we've seen) of stories about what happens when Gabriella cheats. You'll get the fluff that you're craving a bit later in the story, but first we need to write about the consequences of Gabriella's poor decision.

**It's Midnight, Cinderella.**

Troy stared up at the ceiling from his bed, his eyes drooping from drowsiness, yet failing to close. He _really _wished he could fall asleep and just wake up the next morning, mainly so he could sleep through the entire night and not have to toss and turn, worrying about his dwindling relationship with Gabriella and the fear that Trevor wouldn't exactly be the _hospitable _southern gentleman he appeared to be. Usually at times like these, Troy would just shoot hoops from his bed, pondering to himself possible solutions. But since there weren't any hoops around and Chad guarded his precious basketball to himself all day, Troy had resorted to doing the last possible thing - wallowing in self pity whilst attempting to fall asleep early.

Ryan walked into the shared room, bearing a grin on his dirt-filled face. At the sight of Ryan, Troy instantly jumped up on his bed, propping himself up with a comforting pillow. Ryan noticed him and shot him a grin.

"Troy! What're you doing in bed? It's only six!" Ryan asked him.

Troy instantly jumped off his bed, eliminating any chance of Ryan pulling the stunt that he had done this morning. Apparently, Chad and Ryan woke up earlier than everyone else and thought it would be amusing if Ryan jumped on top of Troy's bed, straddling him with his legs. Needless to say, Troy woke up scared as shit and rather freaked out. Before he knew it, a flash went off and he knew that when either Ryan or Chad got hold of a laptop, that photo would be going up on Facebook.

Ryan grinned, sensing Troy's apprehension of lying down whenever Ryan was awake and full of busting energy. "Don't worry, I just gotta get some tools for Chad," He declared, heading for his bed to pull out a shovel from his backpack.

Troy blinked. "Ryan, what are you doing with that shovel?"

"Hmm?" Ryan mumbled questioningly, swiftly turning around, but not before the shovel resting on his shoulder hit the wooden display case, causing all its contents to fall over.

"Oops!" Ryan squeaked, looking at the wide array of Chad's possessions - his blow drier, the sixty-pack afro picks that had previously been arranged in size order but now lay in an array on the floor, Chad's basketball's air pump, his Blue Brothers glasses, suspenders, and various other props that he brought along with him to "pimp out" his outfit.

"For the record, that never happened and if he asks us what happened, I had _nothing _to do with it," Ryan stated bluntly.

Troy just nodded. "Yeah, man. Let's get outta here before he comes in and realizes that he's gonna have to rearrange his combs."

The two boys rushed out of the room and into the living room where Mrs. Evans was humming to songs on an iPod while cooking dinner in the old fashioned style oven.

"Hey mommy!" Ryan chirped sweetly. Mrs. Evans turned around and shot a smile that she reserved for her favorite child. Without muttering any greeting, she resumed singing the song that was playing.

"_I'm on a boat! I'm on a boat! Everybody look at me cuz I'm sailing on a boat!"_

Troy deadpanned. "Ryan, I thought you said your mother only listened to show tunes."

Ryan flushed with embarrassment. "Well, when ya think about it the Lonely Island did have their own show with sitcoms for awhile-"

"..."

"Okay, I lent my mom my iPod to listen to 'cuz she said it was getting a little boring without hers."

"Wow, man. I didn't think you had the balls to have The Lonely Island on there. I thought you'd have songs from Wicked or something..."

"Oh, well... I do."

"..."

"..."

"Wait a minute, how does she know all the lyrics then?"

_"Turn into a jet LIKE A BOSS. Bomb the Russians LIKE A BOSS. Crash into the sun LIKE A BOSS. Now I'm dead LIKE A BOSS!" _Mrs. Evans sang as she opened the door to the porch and took a seat on the rocking chair overlooking the sunset.

"Well, you see... she and my dad love to get down with Jizz in My Pants. And... well, they're young, Troy. You do the math. It's hard to be in your late 30s and not see the Lonely Island skits."

Right as Troy was about to respond, Taylor came stomping into the dining room alongside Sharpay. Taylor and Sharpay both had matching furious expressions latched onto their faces.

"I can't _believe_ you, Sharpay!" Taylor screamed, flinging open the refrigerator to search for some snack food she could munch on in agitation.

"Well, _excuuuusee_ me for doing a good thing for once!" Sharpay snapped. "My nice moments don't come around often, ya know! Gabriella better enjoy it while it lasts 'cuz by midnight, her little carriage will turn back into the ugly pumpkin it always was!"

Taylor gasped as she realized that this was yet another one of Sharpay's devious little plots. "You - you evil, conniving little biatch!" Taylor screamed at Sharpay. "The only reason you helped her was so that you could get what you've always been aiming for - TROY!"

Troy blinked, casting a confused glance towards Ryan who stood there looking equally as puzzled.

Sharpay scoffed. "Oh puh-lease! My crush on him was _soo_ two days ago! And for the record, I make a _damn _good fairy godmother, all right?"

"FAIRY GOD MOTHER?" Taylor shrieked, slamming the fridge door violently and staring at Sharpay incredulously, looking as if she wanted to scratch the blonde's face like a vicious tiger. "YOU SURE MAKE A WICKED FAIRY GOD MOTHER ALL RIGHT."

Sharpay laughed cynically. "Well, hey now! You better hope your little friend doesn't lose her little _glass slipper_ 'cuz those were Prada and I would murder her if I wouldn't get those back!"

"The devil wears Prada!" Ryan called out.

"SHUT UP, RY."

"Stay out of it, Ryan!"

"Hey, don't tell MY brother to stay out of anything! ONLY I'M ALLOWED TO DO THAT, YOU FAT COW."

Taylor's mouth dropped at the mention of the insult. "_Excuse e moi_? You did NOT just say that."

Sharpay placed her hand on her hip sassily. "Oh yeah, I think I just did. What'cha gonna do bout it, you fat, ugly step sister."

"Cat fight!" Ryan yelled out excitedly. "_Oh baby_!"

Taylor narrowed her eyes. "You know what? I'm not even going to bother. I only have one warning for you and that is - whatever wicked spell you cast upon my best friend, I DEMAND that you undo it pronto. Set her straight. Let her know going out with another guy when she already has a loving boyfriend is completely wrong and too Sharpay-esque, _if you know what I mean_. "

Sharpay shook her head, on the verge of laughter. "You don't get it, do you, Taylor? This ain't a fairytale so it's not gonna end like one either. The only thing that I'M about to do is go have myself a nice tan before the sun disappears." Sharpay took a look outside, scrunching up her nose when she saw dirt on Chad Danforth's face, most likely dirty from digging underground. "And it's about time you find your own prince charming, maybe one who doesn't look like a caveman."

Sharpay flashed Taylor a fake smile, placing her pink Dior octagonal-shaped shades atop her forehead. "You know... just a suggestion. Ta-ta!" She waved to Troy and her brother before exiting outside, going on with her normal late afternoon affairs.

After a moment of silence, Ryan finally spoke out. "Well, at least she's not locking herself in the room today! That's progress!"

Just then, Chad entered the room smiling brightly.

"Hey, has anyone seen my combs?"

Gabriella and Trevor had decided to get away from all the noise for a while and take a nice stroll around the barn. Gabriella, holding Trevor's hand in one hand, and a soft pretzel in the other, stared up at the stars.

"It reminds me of being home..." Gabriella thought to herself, trying to find the big dipper, "Me and Tr-" She suddenly stopped herself. "One of my friends and I used to count the stars from my balcony every night..."

A flood of guilt suddenly washed over her, but she quickly shook it off. She refused to feel remorse for hanging out with a friend, even if she felt a little more than just friendship for him.

Trevor smiled as they took a seat on a nearby wooden bench, watching as the party went on without them.

"Gabriella...can I say something?" Trevor asked, as Gabriella threw her leftover pretzel into a wire trash can.

"'Course" She saw the glimmer of worry in his eyes, and suddenly became nervous.

"Okay, Gabriella...I know we're supposed to be just friends. But that kiss last night..."

She gulped, breathing in deeply, "I'm sorry, Trevor. I really am. It wasn't supposed to happen...I mean, don't get me wrong, you're gorgeous, but...I-I never meant for us to get any further than friends."

"I had a feeling you would say that..." Trevor gulped, watery droplets slowly forming beneath his eyelids. "It's just that...I'm trying so hard not to develop feelings for you. But it's hard. Real hard."

Gabriella felt a tear roll down her cheek, "I don't know what to think anymore, Trevor. I thought...I thought I was in love with Troy. I think I still am, actually. He was my first love, but now... I don't know. I'm not sure of anything anymore."

"Gab, you're beautiful without even trying. Your smile lights up a room. Your laugh warms my heart. I can't help but smile when I'm around you. I know you don't...love me, but I-I want you to..."

Gabriella was stunned by his honesty. Would Troy have ever admitted something that sentimental to her? He sure hadn't as of yet.

"I don't know..." She began, tears now streaking her face. Luckily, Sharpay had put waterproof mascara on her, so there were no unattractive runny black marks over her face.

"Let me love you..." Trevor said, leaning towards her, "Gabriella, please, just let me show you the person I can be."

She turned away, her chin quivering, "I have a boyfriend, Trevor."

"Maybe...Maybe this will change your mind..." Trevor cupped her head in his hands and leaned in, giving her a soft tender kiss. She slowly wrapped her arms around him as he pushed her down, laying on top of her on the bench. Gabriella let her hands wander, feeling his neck...letting her fingers curl themselves around the hem of his shirt, un-tucking it fiercely.

Before she knew what was going on, Trevor had picked her up bridal style, and was carrying her to his truck.

They continued kissing, her kisses growing with passion and lust. She unbuttoned his shirt, peeling it off and revealing his firm abs. He slipped his hat off as he began to undo her wedges. They stopped for only a moment while he slipped off his jeans, revealing a pair of forest green boxers. She moaned, reaching for him, pulling him back onto her. He kissed her neck, slowly sliding her dress up around her waist, revealing a pair of boxer-style underwear.

"I love you, Gabriella" Trevor moaned as he ran his fingers through her hair, leaving hickeys along her neckline.

"Make love to me..." She groaned, wrapping her legs around his waist, "Troy...make love to me!"

Suddenly, Trevor stopped, looking her in the eyes. "You called me Troy..."

Gabriella's eyes went wide in alarm, "Trevor! Trevor...I-"

"I'll drive you home, Gabriella." Trevor backed off of Gabriella and tried to find his clothes. She felt the tears run down her face again.

"Trev, I'm sorry. I meant to say Trevor, not Troy! It...It was an accident..."

He slipped his jeans on and stared at her, "It was no accident, Gabriella. You love 'im. I don't blame you. Just fix yer'self up and I'll drive you home."

_I guess your prince charming _  
_Wasn't after all _  
_'Cause he sure seemed different right after the ball _

Gabriella unrolled her dress and reached for her shoes, brushing arms with Trevor. He pulled away immediately, pretending to be looking for something.

_I guess more than horses are turnin' into rats _  
_And by the way he's walkin' _  
_I can guess where your slipper's at _

It was over. They were over. Their friendship? Gone. Their supposed 'love'? Gone. And any shread of dignity Gabriella thought she had? Gone. And to make it worse, Gabriella had to go back to Troy that night. She couldn't help but wonder if he'd notice her rumpled dress and sweated-out hair, frizzed from sweat, tears, and Trevor running his hair through it. Her _life_ was over.

_It's midnight Cinderella-  
time that you should know  
There's gonna be some changes in the way this story goes_

----

Gabriella stumbled into the cottage through the screen door in the back, hoping that she wouldn't draw to much attention to herself. Luckily, though, it seemed like everyone was asleep. Mr. and Mrs. Evans had fallen asleep entangled in each others arms on the couch and she couldn't hear any movement coming from upstairs. Quietly, she slipped off her shoes and tip-toed up the creaky stairs, being sure to carefully shift her weight so that the stairs wouldn't creak, and slipped unnoticed into the girls' bedroom.

At least, she thought she went unnoticed. Too bad two people had seen her.

Taylor pretended to be asleep as she watched Gabriella slip into the room, her dress askew and her hair a mess. Something had happened with Trevor, and (because it was...well, Taylor...) she had a pretty good idea of exactly what act had been commited. Before she could get up and surprise her, though, Gabriella collapsed on her bed, still fully dress, and burst into silent tears.

_Maybe I shouldn't bombard her with questions tonight..._ Taylor thought as she watched her best friend crumbled before her.

The second person who had seen her hadn't even been trying.

Troy was walking out of the bathroom upstairs and had seen Gabriella go into her room. She looked a mess, and by the way she was hanging her head so low, he had a feeling she felt worse than she looked.

At first, he wanted to get angry - not at Gabriella, but at Trevor. _What did that no-good hillbilly heartbreaker do to my girlfriend?! _But then, he decided to be passive about the whole thing, at least until he saw Trevor again.

When he saw him, he knew exactly what would happen - all hell was about to break loose.


	8. Into Your Arms

**Into Your Arms**

"YOU ALMOST HAD SEX WITH A COWBOY?"

"Shh!" Gabriella shushed her best friend. "Taylor, don't scream that so loud! Gosh!"

"WHAT IN GOD'S NAME IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Taylor shrieked, her hand flying to her friend's shoulders as she shook them. "HOW THE FUCK DID THAT HAPPEN? ARE YOU STILL CONVINCED THAT WAS NOT A FUCKING DATE? ARE YOU AWARE THAT THIS _MOST DEFINITELY _CROSSES THE BORDERLINE OF CHEATING?"

Gabriella looked over her shoulder, feeling relieved that Sharpay wasn't here to listen to Taylor's rant. She just hoped that no one was listening in on this conversation.

"Taylor, I know. And I feel horrible."

"GOD DAMN IT, YOU SHOULD. I BET THIS IS ALL SHARPAY'S DOING. THAT BITCH IS GONNA PAY FOR IT!"

"Taylor, calm down!" Gabriella hissed, her hand resting upon Taylor's shoulder. "This was _my _faulty decision. The only thing Sharpay did was give me the most amazing dress and shoes as well as do my hair. As strange as it is to admit it, she was actually being _nice_."

Taylor gasped dramatically. "Nice is not a word to describe Sharpay Evans! Under no circumstance! That bitch is cold and cruel 24/7."

Gabriella shrugged. "I don't know about that, but I certainly did feel like a princess in that dress even if it was for one night-"

"And you were cheating on your prince charming who sat home the whole night feeling like shit," Taylor filled in the blank, informing her of Troy's whereabouts last night.

Gabriella stood silent, not knowing what to say.

"Listen, Gabriella. You need to make up your mind. It's Troy or Trevor. And may I remind you that you've only known Trevor for... a week. And you've known Troy for how long? Two years?"

"And a quarter," Gabriella mumbled sadly. "Taylor, I think I made a big mistake."

"No shit!" Taylor snapped.

"I should just tell Troy the truth-"

"WHOA," Taylor stopped her before she could continue with her words. "NO. You CAN'T tell him. Don't you get it? That boy is head over heels in love with you and telling him what happened last night could possibly break him. I'm telling you. _Don't tell him_."

"I can't do that, Taylor!" Gabriella cried, tears threatening to fall from her face. "I need to be honest with him or else this will just haunt me for the rest of my life."

Gabriella walked to her bed, falling atop the sheets. "I feel like crap. God, I'm horrible. Troy deserves someone soo much better. Maybe someone who wouldn't cheat on him. Ugh!"

"Well, don't be too hard on yourself. Everyone makes mistakes."

"But not like this," Gabriella managed to get out as tears poured down her fae and a lump formed at her throat. "I completely crossed the line when I agreed to go out with him to the carnival. Now Trevor and Troy both hate me."

She took off the accessories that Sharpay had lent her last night, placing them on Sharpay's nightstand.

"You should've seen the look on his face when I went out," Gabriella sobbed. "I'm such a horrible person! I kept thinking of the look on his face all throughout the night, but I kept telling myself to not think about it... I made the biggest mistake, Taylor."

Taylor tilted her head, wrapping her arms around her vulnerable friend. "Oh Gabs, don't feel too bad... blame those stinkin', stinkin' hot cowboys."

--

At breakfast time, Troy stared at Gabriella, knowing that she had been crying from the look in her puffy eyes. Her puffy eyes wasn't the only thing he noticed. He noticed the empty spot on her neck where she usually wore his necklace. Now that he thought about it, he didn't remember her wearing it last night either. He gulped, trying to assure himself that it didn't mean anything - maybe she just took it off before she showered and forgot to put it back on. It wasn't that big of a deal, right?

_There was a new girl in town.  
She had it all figured out.  
And I'll state something rash.  
She had the most amazing....smile.  
I bet you didn't expect that.  
But she made me change my ways. (She made me change my ways)  
With eyes like sunsets baby.  
And legs that went on for days._

He tried to catch her attention and waited for her eyes to meet his, but soon enough, he realized that she was deliberately avoiding locking her eyes on his.

_I'm fallin' in love  
But it's fallin' apart.  
I need to find my way back to the start.  
When we were in love.  
Oh things were better than they are.  
Let me back into.  
Into your arms._

Finally, he gave up and stood up, walking towards the sink to deposit his cereal bowl. As he looked at Gabriella one last time, he noticed something - Gabriella's lips were puffy and red, like someone had...bit them. He narrowed his eyes at her, studying her closely. That's when he saw it - a line of darker spots on her skin running up her neck and along her collarbone. Hickeys.

Troy gulped. _Hickeys? _He wanted to scream - wanted to punch Trevor's lights out. But most of all, he wanted to get even.

That's when Gabriella finally looked up, trying to figure out what Troy was staring at. She obviously hadn't realized that Trevor had marked her with love bites the night before.

_How could she have made out with him?_ He shouted inside his head. Then it all clicked. _Gabriella cheated on me._ He thought to himself. _She slept with the cowboy. She slept with him, but she refused to sleep with me._

This was going to drive Troy over the edge. A sudden anger bubbled up inside of him, threatening to rear its ugly head and pounce on Gabriella. He wanted...no - he _needed _revenge. And lucky for him, he knew just the person who could help him.

_Oh she's slippin' away.  
I always freeze when I'm thinking of words to say.  
All the things she does.  
Make it seem like love...  
But it's fallin' apart.  
I need to find my way back to the start._

--

Trevor sighed as he began cleaning out the cab of his truck, grabbing stray tissues and bundled up pieces of paper, throwing them into a trash can he had dragged outside.

He stuck his hands between the seats, looking for any spare change, when he saw something glittering just out of his reach. He dug his hand further down, grabbed the sparkling object, and tore it from between the seat cushions. It was a small silver 'T' accented with a red rhinestone flower and attached to a long, thin silver chain.

_Huh?_ Trevor thought to himself, trying to determine who's necklace it was.

Suddenly, his mind flashed back to that almost-perfect night with Gabriella. He had been hastily ripping off both her clothes and his own, kissing her neck and chest, when something had gotten in his way. He'd ripped it off of her, trying to be as quick as possible. He had wanted to make love to her before anyone saw them, trying to save her from the embarrassment of someone walking in on her first time. He had ripped off the object and thrown it somewhere behind him.

He had ripped off Gabriella's 'T' necklace. That meant he had to return it.

_Fantastic..._Trevor thought to himself, rubbing his thumb against the delicate rhinestones.

--

Troy angrily flung open the girls bedroom door, walking in on Sharpay checking herself out in the mirror.

"Um...is there a reason why you're in here?" Sharpay scoffed, looking him up and down.

"Gabriella cheated on me," He said quickly, rushing toward Sharpay. He stared down her nose, at her extremely exposed chest, and then back up at her face again. "She cheated on me with Trevor."

"What do you mean...._cheated_?" Sharpay began, noticing Troy's wandering eyes, loving the attention.

"She fucked him. Now she's not even wearing my goddamned necklace." He shouted, breathing heavily.

Sharpay raised her eyebrows, a shocked smile spreading across her face. "What do you want me to do about it?" She asked, leaning in towards Troy, who had taken a moment to rest on Sharpay's bed, sitting quietly no the edge.

"I need you to do something I know you've always wanted to do..." Troy said, watching her smirk as she leaned over him, her arms slowly pushing against his.

"And what is that...?" She smiled, sitting down on his lap, their lips only inches apart.

"Pretend to have sex with me," Troy gave Sharpay an evil grin. "When Gabriella comes upstairs later, you'll be a little exposed under the sheets, I'll be kissing you...She'll be devastated..."

Sharpay was impressed. She had never seen Troy act so...evil. It was quite the turn on.

"I thought you'd never ask!" She shouted. Before Troy knew what was going on, Sharpay had jumped on top of him, kissing him with passion.

"Don't...forget..." He mumbled, trying to force Sharpay's tongue away from his lips. "This...this isn't for real..."

"Not yet, anyways..." Sharpay moaned, before forcing herself on top of him, his legs flailing wildly as she planted a sloppy wet one on his lips.

_Maybe this was a bad idea..._ Troy thought to himself as he felt Sharpay press herself against him.

Little did he know that his plan was going to get a whole lot worse.


	9. That Honkey Tonk

**That Honkey Tonk**

Taylor sat down across from Gabriella at the dining room table. She had just come down from upstairs, where she could've sworn she had heard Mr. and Mrs. Evans's hooting and moaning from the girls' bedroom. Too scared to check that they weren't doing it on her own bed, she had fled downstairs, only to find Gabriella crying with her head down.

"You okay?" Taylor said, knitting her brows.

Gabriella looked up at her, revealing her hickeys. "Troy saw me and then got this...this horrible angry look on his face. I don't even know why he suddenly got so angry. It's not like he knows what I did. At least, I hope he doesn't know."

Taylor's eye went wide, "Um, honey? I think I know." She quickly sifted through her purse to find her Mary Kay compact mirror. Taylor turned it to face Gabriella, who's look suddenly turned from bewildered to horrified.

"Oh no!" She exclaimed, bursting out into another fit of tears, "I can't believe...I mean, how did I not notice? Why did I...Oh no..."

Taylor sighed, walking over towards Gabriella, placing a hand on her best friends shoulder.

"This is why you always have to be careful when coming home after almost having sex with a cowboy, dear."

- - -

Gabriella had changed out of her PJ's and into a pair of worn black skinny jeans and an American Eagle yellow plaid camping shirt with a pair of yellow Havaianas flip flops. Her thick brown hair was tied back into a rumpled ponytail and she didn't bother to throw on any eyeliner. She wasn't trying to impress anyone. She was going over to Trevor's house to talk. She needed to explain to him that what they had was over - that stint the night before wasn't something that she usually did. She wasn't that type of girl, and she needed him to know that.

Luckily, however, Gabriella hadn't had to change in her bedroom (unknowingly avoiding the scene that Troy was trying to cause) because she had put her clothes in a bag near the bathroom door, not wanting to face Sharpay or anyone else ready to judge.

Gabriella sighed before stepping out into the hot sun, taking in its warmth. Suddenly, a familiar looking horse came charging at her from behind.

"APPLEJAX!" She screamed as the horse began to nuzzle her cheek, its wet nose scraping against her.

"Where's Toby, honey?" She asked him, resting a hand on his mane. Applejax neighed in reply.

Gabriella sighed, "Well, I'm on my way to Trevor's. Why don't I give you a ride home?" With that, Gabriella hopped on the back of Applejax, nugged him twice, and let him trot around the cottage and into the woods near the meadow. Trevor had shown her this secret path to his house the day before the....incident. It was a much faster way to get to his house from the Evans's cottage.

They charged through the lush trees and unusual flowers, rounding slight corners easily with just a tug at the reigns, smashing twigs and bugs, leaving the leaves ruffled in Applejax's wake.

Before Gabriella realized it, Applejax had turned himself down into the Maccudy's backyard, neighing wildly at Sadie Rose.

Gabriella hopped off Applejax, gave him a little rib down his side, and then set off for Trevor's back door. His father was gone - his usual black pick-up wasn't in the driveway, and she couldn't hear Toby's usual screams.

_I hope Trev is here..._ She thought to herself, looking down at her painted toenails as she walked.

Gabriella reached the thin screen door, breathing unsteady breaths before she slowly leaned in to press the doorbell. Before she could, Trevor had already opened the door, causing her to almost fall ontop of him.

"I thought you'd never come back..." He said as he helped her steady herself. She immediately shied away from his hands.

"We need to talk," Gabriella said, trying to avoid his probing eyes. Trevor never moved from his spot near the door, not letting her any further than a foot into his kitchen.

"Gabriella, ya' told me ever'thing you needed ta' last night," He spat, narrowing his eyes as he looked her up and down, "I don't need your sympathy. You don't need to apologize for wantin' ta' be with Troy rather than me. There ain't no need to come over here an' try to break up with me. We were just friends, Gabriella. That's all we were. If Troy has a problem with it, you can tell'em ta' com'in talk to me 'bout it."

Gabriella felt tears stinging the backs off her eyes, threatening to spill over and roll down her cheeks. "I want to apologize, Trevor. I can't leave in two weeks without you understanding that I love you!"

Trevor stopped, knitting his brows.

"I love you, Trevor! I love you, okay?" She shouted, her chest heaving, her face red.

"If you love me, than why wouldn't you be with me?" He asked, taking her hands in his. This time, she didn't pull away.

Gabriella struggled for air, "I-I love you. But I've loved Troy f-for so long. I know him, I-I know what he likes...what he doesn't. I understand him. There's something I like about...about him being so predictable. I can finish h-his sentences - I know what he's thinking most of the time. We-we've been together so long, through so many t-trials in our lives. We've been there for each other. I can't just give that up."

"Gabriella, when I'm with you, I feel better about myself. I feel like, for once in my life, something is going right. When I look at you...your smile, your laugh, your glow...you light up a room. You're so smart and charming and daring. You aren't like the rest of the girls in Blossom Valley. I've never met someone like you. You're like my own personal brand of heroine. Just for me, and I can't get enough," Trevor leaned towards her, she leaned in as well.

Once again, they began kissing. This time however, the kisses were real - _genuine_. Trevor slowly pulled her into the house, leaning her against the kitchen counter. They struggled for air as their breaths got hotter, soaking each other in. Gabriella felt her hands roam under his gray tank, feeling his muscles roll beneath her hands. Trevor picked her up, setting her down onto the counter top, her legs wrapped around his waist.

Just as Gabriella thought she was going to give in, let him take away what she had been saving for so long, she felt him kiss her neck, making her immediatly pull away, her hand darting towards the hickey's that ran along it.

"I shouldn't have come," She mumbled as she tried to get up from the counter. Trevor looked up at her, attempting to kiss her again. She pushed him away.

"Stop, Trev. We shouldn't be doing this...I shouldn't be doing this. This isn't how it's supposed to happen!" Gabriella exclaimed as she felt him struggle to lift her shirt over her head, fumbling with the buttons.

"Gabriella!" He exclaimed, overcome with passion, "I love you, goddamit! Why can't you love me?!"

Gabriella watched as he unbuttoned the last button. He crawled onto the counter, laying down on top of her. He kissed her slowly, his body weight on top of her stopping her from getting up. Gabriella, losing all sense of her self, grabbed at his jeans, ripping the button off and unzipping them. He quickly slid them off, landing on the tiled floor.

"I love you...I-I love you," She moaned, letting him untie the ribbon that held her hair back, running a hand through her luscious locks.

Just as he began to pull off her jeans, they heard the front door slam shut. Looking up in alarm, Gabriella watched as Troy's eyes fell on Trevor.

"Troy...it's not what it looks like!-" Gabriella screamed, trying desperatly to re-fasten her bra and pull up her jeans. Trevor hopped off of her immediatly, pulling up his pants, zipping them quickly.

"Dude, hey...I-" Trevor started, putting his hands out in a defensive stance.

"YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!" Troy shouted, running over to Trevor and punching him in the face, causing Trevor to drop to the floor, holding his jaw in pain, "YOU'RE FUCKING MY GIRLFRIEND AGAIN?!?!?!"

"Troy, please, it's not what it looks like!" Gabriella exclaimed, rushing over to Trevor's side, trying to wipe away the blood that had spilled over onto his cheek, "STOP!" She shrieked, "you're being an idiot!"

"AND YOU GO TO HIS GODDAMNED DEFENSE?!" Troy shouted as Trevor stopped up, Gabriella blocking his path.

Trevor suddenly pushed her out of his way, punching Troy square in the nose. Troy, who obviously wasn't as strong as Trevor, was flung back a few feet, crashing into a bookshelf behind them, causing the shelf to wobble, but (luckily) not tip over.

"TREVOR!" She shrieked, holding back his fists, pushing herself against his chest to slow him down. He leaned over her shoulder and spat at Troy.

"You love this asshole, Gabriella?! Do you, really? He'd rather pretend to be a macho man than defend you. Don't you see that?" Trevor groaned, as Gabriella touched his cheek where Troy's fist had smacked into him.

Gabriella turned to face Troy, who was staring up at her from the floor with those puppy dog eyes, the usual glint in his blue orbs nowhere to be found.

"Yeah, I do see it now." Gabriella replied, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Trev." With that, Gabriella wrapped her arms around Trevor, bare chest to (almost) bare chest and kissed him with a drive Troy had never experienced.

"Gabriella-" Troy choked out.

"We're done, Troy. I can't trust you, anymore. I-I'm sorry, but it's over. _We're_ over."

Gabriella let Trevor kiss her along the line of hickeys, forming new ones in the process. He looked back at Troy raising an eyebrow and shaking his head at him. Trevor had one. He had been awarded the damsel-in-distress. Troy was through. And so was everything he knew about love.

Troy stood up slowly, staring back at the new couple.

Trevor casually looked back at him, as if they had never met before, "The door is that way. Feel free to leave whenever you'd like. I'd show you to the door, but I'm a little..._busy_."

--

_  
_"To the right! Now to the left! C'mon, Chad... we ain't gonna get this buried treasure out if you fool around all day!" Ryan screamed down at Chad, who was busily digging underground. Ryan was resting idly on a lounge chair while feeding biscuits to Dixon.

"I could use a lil help, y'know!" Chad grumbled bitterly, throwing dirt in the way of Ryan with his shovel. Ryan dodged the puffy smoke that the dirty unleashed upon hitting the ground.

"Dude, watch it! I gotta keep the dog entertained! I'm doing hard work!"

"You ain't doing anything!" Chad snapped. "Keeping the dog entertained is not hard work, Ryan!"

"Well, it's a job that SOMEONE has to do. Do you want me to sing a few tunes to keep you entertained?"

"No thanks, man. I'm good."

"Well, then," Ryan mused. "I think you should dig a little more to the left, then. That side looks like it would be easier to pull out the box from..."

Mr. Evans walked by, coughing at the dirt in the air.

"Boys, what the hell do you think your doin'?"

"Looking for buried treasure, dad!" Ryan chirped brightly. "Dixon started digging this hole and we saw that something was buried under there. Now, Chad and I are gonna dig it up."

Mr. Evans blinked, resting his right palm on his son's shoulder. "Son, I think it's time we had a talk."

"Uh, okay, dad," Ryan mumbled. "Talk."

Mr. Evans took a deep breath. "Son, when I told you as a little boy that there were some traveling cowboys who buried some of their treasures 'round here, I was lying. You were seven. You had trouble sleeping. I didn't know any good stories, so I made one up. You aren't gonna find anything if you keep digging. And if you do find something, it ain't gonna be anything special."

"No, dad! Can't you see? There's definitely something down there!" Ryan exclaimed, pointing to part of the box that has emerged from days of digging on his and Chad's behalf (mostly Chad's).

Mr. Evans just shook his head solemnly. "Boy, where did I go wrong with you?"

"No where, dad! Chad and I are gonna get that thing out! No worries."

Mr. Evans pulled out a cigar, lighting it. "All right, son. I'm gonna head down to the bar. I got me some honkey-tonk-ing to do."

Ryan blinked, confused. "Um, kay? Bye."

Mr. Evans nodded his head, waving to Ryan. "So, long, son! Just don't tell you mom bout this, got it?"

"Sure, sure," Ryan waved the thought away off-handedly. "CHAD, PULL UP YOUR PANTS. NO ONE WANTS TO SEE THAT BUTTCRACK!"

---

_Make ya wanna swing along  
Got it goin' on  
Like Donkey Kong  
And whoo-wee  
Shut my mouth, slap your grandma_

Frank Evans made his way into the local bar twenty miles from the cottage, being sure to give Mrs. Evan's a 'good time' before he left, knowing that that would tire her out. As he walked into the smoke filled bar, two men sitting at the counter waved him over.

"Hey Frank!" The first guy, a stocky, muscular man exclaimed, putting a thick arm around Mr. Evans's shoulder. "Haven't seen you since high school, buddy!"

The second man, who looked almost exactly like Trace Adkins minus the goatee, grunted and raised a hand, calling the bar maid over and ordering a round of beers for the three of them.

"Frank! How's it goin'?" The Trace-look-alike said as Mr. Evans at down on the bar stool in between the two.

Frank looked over at the Trace-look-alike and smiled, "Billy!" The man grunted as he guzzled down the rest of his beer. "And Ray!" He said to the muscular one, "Been a loooong time, hasn't it?"

"Certainly has! What took ya' so long?" Ray said, wiping sweat from his mustache.

Frank chuckled deeply as the beautiful twenty-something bar maid delivered his beer. "Janice had to be, uh...put to bed. I gave her some of the good stuff and off she went."

"Ah! Just like college, bro!" Billy said, pumping fists with Frank.

Ray began to clap as the lights in the smokey bar dimmed to almost nothing. He quickly pulled out his black leather wallet and fumbled with a was of $1 bills, "yer' just in time!" He said to Frank, "The show is about to begin!"

Frank smiled, pulling out his own wad of $1 bills, "Just like old times, bro. Just like old times..."

As Frank finished his sentence, colorful laser lights shot out of nowhere and sultry dance music began to play, blocking out all other noise.

_Turn it up some  
Alright boys, this is her favorite song  
You know that right  
So, if we play it good and loud  
She might get up and dance again  
Ooh, she put her beer down  
Here she comes_

Two poles dropped down from the ceiling and four scantily clad, practically underage girls slunk down the bar, giving lap dances to the men sitting up close.

_We don't care bout the drinkin'  
Barely listen to the band  
Our hands, they start a shakin'  
When she gets the urge to dance  
Drivin' everybody crazy  
You think you fell in love  
Boys, you better keep your distance  
You can look but you can't touch  
_

Billy and Ray cat-called to the two youngest girls, who stalked over to them. The men threw bills at them as they danced around the poles. Frank let one sit on his lap, kissing his neck. Billy laughed as the barely 18-year-old girl dressed in nothing but a metallic bikini and stripper heels led him into the room that said "PRIVATE SHOWS AND MORE."

"Congrats, Frank!" Ray shouted.

"Everyone needs something different in their lives, bros!" Frank shouted back before the door closed and the "Occupied" light lit up, followed by obnoxious moans and groans from behind the door.

_There outta be a law  
Get the Sheriff on the phone  
Lord have mercy, how's she even get them britches on  
That honky tonk badonkadonk  
_

Billy stood up, walking over towards where Frank had gone. "HEY RAY!" He shouted, "THIS ROOM HAS A VIEWING WINDOW!"

Ray's eyes lit up as he walked towards the window that Billy was looking through, "How does Frank get into that postion?" He mumbled, scratching his head as another scantily-clad woman began dancing around him and Billy.

"I'm not sure," Billy replied as he began to grind against the woman, "But I'm sure about to find out!"

_That's it, right there boys,  
that's why we do what we do  
It ain't for the money, it ain't for the glory,  
it ain't for the free whiskey  
It's for the badonkadonk  
_

Trevor smiled as he sat next to Gabriella on his couch in the living room, holding her close to him. They had decided not to have sex - the timing felt wrong - so, after a little more kissing, they changed back into their clothes and relaxed on his couch.

"I can't believe it, Gabs," He said, cradling her near him.

"Believe what, Trev?" Gabriella asked, looking back up at him.

He brushed a stray hair away from her face and sighed, "I can't believe that I thought I could hide my feelin's for you."

Gabriella tried to smile, but she couldn't get the image of Troy bleeding on the floor out of her mind, "It's crazy, what happened. But...I'm glad I'm with you." She tried to convince herself that that was one hundred percent true. "You're not like anyone I've ever met, Trevor. You have than southern flair that I've never seen before."

Trevor chuckled, winking devilishly at her.

"Really, though. When I came here, I never expected to fall in love...It's crazy."

"Yeah," Trevor said, squeezing her playfully, "I never thought that one of Sharpay's acquaintances could be so down ta' earth and fun...and beautiful without even trying."

--

Troy slammed the door as hard as he could, slipping off his Adidas. Seething in rage, he bounded up the stairs. Upon arriving at his room, he flung himself on his bunk bed, covering his head with a nearby cushioning pillow.

"Ugh, fuck my life." Troy groaned in agony, letting the jabs of pain sink into his soul. He couldn't help but tear up, but he knew he couldn't cry either. Crying was for sissys like Ryan Evans. Troy was more emtionally stable, or so he thought.

Just then, Chad padded into the room, acompanyed by a purple llama stuffed animal.

"Hey bud, what's shakin'?" Chad said as he sat down on the edge of Troy's bed, wrestling his legs for space to sit.

"Not now, okay Chad?" Troy groaned, rolling over so that he wouldn't have to face the llama stuffie.

Chad knit his brows, cocking his head to the side like a confused dog, "Dude, what's your problemo?"

"Gabriella..." He started, sitting up and facing Chad slightly, "She...She kicked me out of her life. Dumped me for Trevor."

"Oh, man...you're in some deep shit, huh?" Chad started, "But speaking of deep shit, guess what me and Ryan found in the backyard?!"

"That stupid stuffed animal?" Troy asked sarcastically, pointing at the beat up, muddy purple llama that Chad was caressing.

"Well, that...but guess what else?"

Troy sighed. He hated playing these stupid 'guess what' games with Chad, especially after what had just taken place a few hours before. "What, Chad?" He said, playing along.

"WEED!" Chad shouted.

"Weed...as in grass?" Troy began.

Chad shook his head slowly, "Well, actually, it's not even grass. Man we found acid down there!"

"Acid? Doesn't that like, burn your skin?"

"Not that kinda acid, bro. LSD! LUCY! That pshycadelic drug that makes you go all crazy and see colors and stuff. It was buried out back! Has to be from the 70's, I mean...everyone was gettin' high back then anyways..."

Troy furrowed his brows, raising one of them slightly, "Isn't that kinda dangerous. Using LSD from the 70's?"

"Yeah, yeah...Ryan already had some. He mixed it in with his soda and BLAM! He's bouncing off the walls down there." Chad leaned in closer and whispered, "Dude, we found a whole case! You want in?"

Troy started to say no - that Gabriella was gonna catch him. But then he remembered - Gabriella was with Trevor. She didn't care about him anymore. Besides, she was still over at Trevor's house (doing who knows what)and probably wouldn't be back for a while. Troy was feeling pretty low, and he had always heard that drugs helped...pick you up.

"I'm in." He replied, lowering his voice, "I'll meet you out back in a few minutes."

"Roger that, buddy." And before Troy knew it, Chad had sped out of the room, leaving the purple llama in his wake.

---

Ryan smiled, hiccuping happily as he pushed the can of LSD-laced Coke at Troy, who gladly took another swig. He had already had three or four of those special Cokes, and was almost ready to resort to swallowing the pill whole.

"I can understand the secret language of Adam and Eve!" Chad exclaimed, before falling backwards and staring up at the stars.

Troy smiled goofily, "I feel so goooooooood."

"Yellow..." Ryan moaned, "Yeeeeelloooooow."

Chad turned to look at Ryan, "Realyl? Cuz I thought it was purple..."

Troy didn't exactly see colors yet, so he finished off the can of Coke and stared up towards the top of one of the leafy trees that lined the backyard. After some time, the green started fading and red and blue emerged.

"Finally..." He groaned, his hands beginning to shake wildly. Chad writhed and squirmed on the ground, screaming that his eyes were falling out and worms were eating his inerds. Ryan layed there, giggling and hiccuping happily, pointing out UFO's in the sky.

"...And that one waved at me!" Ryan shouted happily, pointing at what he thought was an alien but what was really a tree branch.

Troy stood up, stumbling towards their box of LSD, trying to pick up more. Just as he slipped another two or three...or six or seven...pills into his drink, Gabriella walked through the front door, a dreamy smile on her face. Until she saw Troy. That's when her smile turned into a frown of alarm.

Troy's eyes went wide as he back away, tripping over his own feet and falling to the ground, his drink spilling over him.

"What the hell is going on?" Gabriella asked racing towards the door.

"Since when were there....t-t-talking lollipops?" Chad asked, standing up and dragging himself toward Gabriella. She tensed up as Chad licked her cheek. "Blue raspberry flavor...with a hint of...oh, mellow peppers in the springtime. I like applesauce...and spies."

"WHAT THE HECK?!?!?" She shouted, pushing him away, causing him to fall ontop of Troy, who was staring up at Gabriella, his tongue hanging from the side of his mouth.

"You look tasty..." Troy mumbled, his legs shaking furiously.

Just then, Ryan turned to face her, "Juniper cherry banana...I like po-po-pop goes the weasel. I k-know that language!"

"WE FLY HIGH! NO LIE! YOU KNOW IT'S BALLIN'!" Chad exclaimed.

Gabriella turned towards them, a look of disgust on her face, "What the heck are you guys _on_?"

Chad turned to face her, "LSD, want someeeeee" He replied in a sing-songy voice. Gabriella furrowed her brows.

"Is that...CHANNING TATUM?!?!?" Ryan exclaimed out of nowhere, leaping onto Chad and licking his neck. "I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU!"

Meanwhile, Sharpay bounded into the backyard, carrying three helmets. "I brought these for you guys. I heard you were getting high and I don't want you hurting yourselves." As she looked up, she saw Ryan pulling on Chad's hair, licking him. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!"

"My sentiments exactly." Gabriella replied, holding her head in her hands.

Chad and Ryan began to roll over each other on the ground, giving Troy time to stand up. "Gabriella?" He moaned slowly, before falling back over, this time, onto his stomach. "Gab-Gabriella?"

"Oh, Troy!" She exclaimed, rushing over to him, trying to help him up. "I'm here, Troy. It's _me_. I'm here."

Sharpay shook her head, "I guess you guys won't be needing these helmets then. Ryan! Watch where you put your mouth! Chad's hair probably isn't the best dental floss!"

Gabriella cradled Troy in her arms, helping him to stand up, "Troy! It's me, Gabriella. I'm here for you. Bab- I mean...Troy. I'm right here. Gabriella's here."

Troy looked into her eyes, her's full of tears, his full of worry, "Where's Tre-Tre..." Before he could finish, he began making heaving sounds.

"C'mon, come with me. It's okay, don't worry. Let's get you upstairs." Gabriella cooed, beginning to walk, Troy slumped against her.

Sharpay raised an eyebrow, "Funny, I'm surprised at how much you still care, Gabriella. I mean, since you did sleep with a cowboy and everything."

Gabriella stopped and narrowed her eyes, cursing under her breath, "I didn't sleep with anyone, okay? Unlike you, I want my first time to be special."

"That's not what all those hickeys are telling me," Sharpay's eyes grazed over the dark spots on Gabriella's neck. "So, how was he? Did he have a big-"

"SHARPAY!" Gabriella shrieked, causing the moans coming from Ryan and Chad to stop. Troy looked up at her. "I DIDN'T SLEEP WITH TREVOR, ALRIGHT? I STOPPED HIM BEFORE HE COULD! I COULDN'T POSSIBLY SLEEP WITH HIM! WHAT KIND OF GIRL DO YOU THINK I _AM_, SHAR?"

"The kind of girl who cheats on her loving boyfriend, then tries to lie about it." Sharpay smirked at her snarky comment, loving the moment.

"UGH!" Gabriella shrieked.

Troy looked up at her, "Y-you didn't shleeep with Tre-Tre..." The heaving sounds started again.

"We need to go Sharpay..." Gabriella looked down at Troy, "C'mon, honey. I mean...Troy. Everything will be okay."

With that, Gabriella and Troy fled to the cottage, up the stairs, and into the boys bedroom, where she laid him carefully into his bed, tucking the covers around him. Gabriella looked down at the passed out figure that she once called her boyfriend. Quickly, she tucked her hair behind her ears, looked around her to make sure no one was watching, and kissed him on the cheek.

As she was walking away, she heard him moan, "Gabriella?"

She walked back towards his bed, giving him a sympathetic smile, "Hm?" She sat down next to him as he propped himself up slightly.

"I-I...I hate you..."

She stopped smiling and looked down at her feet. _It's probably just the drugs talking,_ She thought to herself, looking down at his narrowed blue eyes. Before she could stop herself, she whispered, "You should..."

But before she could get up, Troy pulled her towards him, giving her a light kiss on the lips and said, "I-I love you."

Gabriella turned back towards him, wanting to lean down and give him the biggest hug she had given to anyone. Before she could, however, Troy finally heaved his last heave and up-chucked the last five meals he had had all over her Havaianas.

"I hate you." Were his last words before he passed out on his bed.


	10. Drugs or Jesus

**Drugs or Jesus**

Troy opened his eyes, only to see the sun piercing through the window. He blinked, shielding his eyes. The last thing he could remember was taking his first sip of coke - everything after that seemed fuzzy. He vaguely remembered Gabriella dragging him to his room and something about throwing up, but other than that, it was all a blur.

"Urgh," He mumbled, rubbing his aching forehead. "What the hell happened?"

He glanced over to see Ryan and Chad, passed out on the floor entangled in each others arms.

"Oh, damn," Troy mumbled to himself. "Did those two hook up last night?"

"Don't think so," A foreign voice called out. The blonde demon herself entered the room. Troy felt the change of the mood in the room as soon as the evil drama queen sauntered in.

"Sharpay?" Troy called out, rubbing his tired eyes. "What-what happened? Why do I feel like crap on a stick?"

"You got high, doofus," Sharpay remarked cynically, twirling a lock of her conditioned hair. "So, how was it? Did you have fun?"

Troy scratched his head, his eyes wandering around the room in confusion. "I don't remember anything... _did _I have fun?"

"Oh yeah. Me and you were together last night."

Troy furrowed his brows, "Huh?"

"Ya' know, we made passionate love out back. It was AMAZING! You kept telling me how great my body was and-" Sharpay lied, being cut off by Troy's girlish screams.

"AAAAAAAH! WHAT?!?!?!!?!?!" He jumped up, covering his fully clothed body with a blanket.

Sharpay laughed, clapping her manicured hands together in delight, "Calm your balls, lover boy. I'm only joking. _This time_..."

Troy sighed, catching his breath as he laid down in his bed once again. Suddenly, he noticed, the wretched smell of someones waste and turned to face Chad's lifeless body.

"EW!" Sharpay shrieked, jumping back into the hallway. "What kind of animal shits all over the floor and then falls asleep in my gay brother's arms?!" Sharpay shouted. "I'm _sooo_ out of here."

Troy held his nose and stepped around Ryan and Chad, into the hallway. Noticing that the door to the girls's room was open, he slowly crept in, closing it behind him. Taylor was curled up in a ball under the covers on her bed, and all the way across the room, Gabriella sat awake, staring at him on hers.

"Gabriella..." He began, slowly advancing towards her bed.

She glared at him. He noticed a pair of stained yellow flip-flops in the corner and scratched his head. Since when were her favorite pair of shoes stained?

"I see you're awake," She muttered bitterly, turning on her side to avoid staring into his eyes from across the room.

"Yeah, uh... what happened last night?" He hoped she could supply the needed information that he craved.

She crossed her arms over her stomach, mumbling. "Why don't you tell me?"

"Uh... all I know is what Sharpay told me, which is that I got high," said Troy.

"Well, she's not lying to ya," Gabriella stated with a hint of attidude in her tone. "Why don't you just go back to Sharpay and ask her all about it."

Troy frowned in confusion. "Why are you so... agitated? I didn't do _anything _to you. You're the one who cheated on me with that cowboy and then dumped me for him. If anything, _I_ should be the one pissed at you."

Gabriella sat up on her bed, staring at him blankly. "Just because I broke up with you doesn't mean I don't still _care_ about you."

"You sure have a funny way of showing it," Troy grumbled under his breath.

Gabriella heard his comment, rolling off the side of her bed to stand.

"You know what, I bet you don't remember _anything _that happened last night. You have absolutely no clue what happened after you... smoked and/or injected some kind of drug," Gabriella asserted as she approached him, her eyes glazing. "I don't think I need to warn you of drug addiction and how it _always _starts with the first dose-"

He put his hands to his face, rubbing his temple. "Gabriella, you really don't need to say all this. I _know_ about it all. We took a class on this for half a semester."

She suppressed further words, just staring at his expression. He returned a similar stare at her and they stood there for a few seconds, just waiting to see what the other would do next.

"Don't turn to drugs because of me, Troy," Gabriella whispered, reaching her right hand up to brush his brown bangs away from his eyes, "I'm not worth it."

Taylor tossed and turned under her covers, stifling a yawn as she awoke, completely unaware of what took place the nigh tbefore and just now.

_Everybody just wants to get high  
Sit and watch a perfect world go by  
We're all looking for love and meaning in our lives  
We follow the roads that lead us  
To drugs or Jesus_

---

Breakfast downstairs was certainly awkward. Taylor eyed everyone at the breakfast table, noticing a familiar streak in the glint of everyone's eyes. Gabriella's eyes looked a bit swollen and her cheeks rather red. Troy refused to look up at anyone and rested a firm gaze on his cereal bowl. Sharpay smacked on her gums loudly as she slurped the glass of milk loudly. Ryan looked

like he had gotten run over by a train the night before with his hair in an array and dirt all over the clothes he had worn _yesterday_. Chad had stray pieces of grass stuck to his hair and his afro seemed more voluminous than ever, as if had forgotten to wash and groom it. Even Mr. Evans looked rather suspicious as he munched on his scrambled eggs, his eyes shifty and his manner neurotic as he demanded to know why everyone was staring at him despite the fact nobody was actually was.

"Um, were you three up to something last night?" Taylor asked curiously, feeling abnormally out of the loop.

Troy, Ryan, and Chad all exchanged knowing glances. Chad cleared his throat and wiped the white mustache formed from the milk with a nearby table napkin.

"Nope."

Taylor stared at him, making him squirm under her glare.

"I swear, we didn't do anything," Chad claimed. "We just hung out in the backyard and that was it."

Sharpay snorted, trying her best not to squirt out milk in her mouth and swallowed. This didn't go by unnoticed by Taylor, who thus began to stare at Sharpay. Sharpay looked up from her cereal bowl, doing her best to remain clueless.

"What?" She asked, putting her hand on her cheek. "Do I have something on my face?"

"You seem to have a mischievous glint in your eye, like the one you usually have when you know something that others don't," Taylor stated her observations in a professional manner.

"What the hell are you, McKessie? A shrink? Leave me the hell alone! How should I know what those retards on the short bus were doing last night," Sharpay snapped loftily, getting up from her seat and leaving her empty bowl in the sink.

"We were on the short bus last night?" Ryan stated questioningly, blinking in utter astonishment. Chad sighed, resting his chin on the palm of his hand while using his elbow to prop his arm up.

"She was trying to insult us," Troy uttered offhandedly.

"Oh," Ryan's mouth formed into the shape of an 'O'.

"Well, if you'll excuse me," Mr. Evans stood up, discretely hiding the cell phone he was texting from the entire morning. "I have plans this morning to, uh, visit an old friend."

Mrs. Evans smiled warmly, standing up to give her husband a quick kiss on the cheek. "Are you visiting Billy and his wife? Tell Rhonda that it's been too long! Have fun, dear!"

Mr. Evans tensed a tad and just nodded as he headed towards the doorway. "I'll do that. Have a good day, kids."

Sharpay giggle-waved before she exited the kitchen and called out cheerfully. "Have a lovely time, daddy!"

"Oh, trust me," Mr. Evans snickered once he opened the door and stepped outside. "I will."

--

Gabriella sat in the passenger seat of Trevor's pick-up, unable to get the image of what happened with Troy the night before out of her mind.

When Gabriella had kissed Trevor at the county fair, she didn't really think anything of it at first, but when she had seen Troy's face when she got home, her whole thought process had changed. This time, the same thing was happening. Not only had she kissed Troy, but she had kissed Troy while he was high - something she had never seen him do before.

It wasn't as if the kiss meant anything to her - she understood that. But it was strange to think that it meant something to Troy. Wait...had it meant something to Troy or was she just full of herself.

Gabriella sighed, resting her tired body against the leathery seat. Trevor idly hummed something to himself - a song called "All American Girl" by Carrie Underwood that was thumping through the stereo.

_And now, he's wrapped around her finger  
She's the center of his whole world  
And his heart belongs to that sweet, little, _

_beautiful, wonderful, perfect_

_All American Girl!_

After a bit of driving, Trevor turned to look at her, a smile spreading across his face.

"Ya' know, pretty lady," He started, his eyes darting back and fourth between her and the road, "Ever'time I hear that song it remind me a' you."

Gabriella looked up at him, "Really?"

"A'course!" He lifted one hand off of the steering wheel, placing it on her shoulder. "You've got me wrapped around your finger. You're the center of my world. And you're a sweet, beautiful, perfect all American girl."

"Y'know, I am part Spanish..." She laughed, pushing him playfully.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't ruin the flow, Gab," He replied, leaning in for a kiss. Gabriella happily obliged, but as she kissed him, she couldn't help but picture herself kissing Troy the night before. Suddenly, she pulled away, licking her lips to wipe away the evidence.

Trevor knit his brows, asking "What's wrong, hun?"

Gabriella leaned away from him, resting her head against the cool glass. "Sorry...Sorry, Trev. I...uh, I'm just...I'm not feeling well. Don't want you to catch what I have."

Trevor grinned, "Oh really? 'Cuz you don't look sick to me. Maybe I should...take your temperature." He pulled onto the curb, kissing her neck. "You don't feel like you have a fever to me..."

"Trevor. Seriously...uh, I have a cold sore," Gabriella pushed him away, pointing to a general area above her upper lip. "Yeah, I...uh, I feel it coming on. _Right_ here."

Trevor sighed, stepping on the gas and pulling back onto the road, "_Fine_, Gabriella. But I don't see anything..."

After another few moments of awkward silence, Gabriella finally asked, "Where are we going, anyway?"

Trevor chuckled heartily, shooting her a slanty grin, "We're going swimming."

Just as he said this, he pulled across a patch of mangled grass, driving full speed into a gravel parking lot. As he pulled in to park, Gabriella rolled down her window, peeking her head out. Her eyes lit up as she saw the sprawling beach and crashing blue-gray water hitting the rocks.

"Lake Kliffstep," Trevor said, hopping out of the car and running over to help Gabriella out of the car.

Gabriella frowned, "But I...I didn't bring my bathing suit..." She mumbled, looking up at him with puppy dog eyes.

"Guess we're going in our underwear, huh?"

---

Troy crashed against the hard ground, smiling goofily up at the clouds. He, Ryan, and Chad had decided to get high again. Chad and Ryan had started digging again and had found a smaller black box filled with joints. Troy happily lit one up.

Ryan and Chad sat next to each other, giving each other back massages near a tree.

"Y-You guys okay back there?" Troy said slolwy, trying to raise his head and catch a glimpse of Chad and Ryan.

Chad was lifting Ryan's shirt up hen Troy looked their way. He immediatly dropped the shirt, grumbling, "Yeah, we're fine..."

"Hey!" Ryan shouted, jumping up from his seat, "What if we play spin-the-bottle?!"

Troy looked up - he might have been high, but he wasn't a freak. "Spin-the-bottle? First of all, we're all guys here. Second, what bottle would we use?"

Ryan snuck around the tree, coming out from behind it moments later holding an empty Vodka bottle. "I found it with the weed," He said nonchalantly, passing it to Chad who scrambled to where Troy was, setting it in between them.

"Dude, I'm not gay," Troy stated in a matter-of-fact sort of way.

Chad rolled his eyes as Ryan took a seat across fromt he two of them. "Bro, listen. Kissing a guy _soooo_ does not make you gay. To be gay, you have to kiss a guy and _like_ it." Chad scratched his head as he finished his sentence, leaning in towards Ryan and Troy.

"So, who's first?"

---

Sharpay groaned as she fixed her hair in the mirror. No one had invited her out with them on thier adventures. Gabriella had run off with the hot cowboy, Chad, Troy and Ryan were, well...doing whatever they ususally did in the backyard. Her mother was sleeping and her father was out visiting a friend.

Just then, she heard Ryan shouting, "YOU HAVE TO KISS ME TROY!"

"WHAT!" She screamed, bolting out of her room and down into the backyard. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON NOW?!"

Chad held up a joint reaching over to hand it to her, "Dude, we're getting high. You want in?"

Sharpay looked down at the rolled up package of weed and sighed, "Why not?" She took a puff before sitting down, noticing Troy's scared expression and Ryan's googly eyes.

"I kissed Troy, Sharpay..." He said dreamily, as if in a trance.

"NO!" Troy shouted, taking another puff, "You pounced on me and slobbered on my cheek. There's a BIG difference, buddy."

Sharpay winked at Ryan before noticing the bottle. "Spin-the-bottle, huh?" She asked, tracing a circle on the glass bottle with her nail. "Can I play?"

Chad winced, pulling the bottle in his direction, "Sure. Fine. Whatever. But it's _my _turn." With that, Chad spun the bottle around and around. Finally, after about four spins, it landed on Ryan.

Ryan smiled mischievously and giggled, "Fine by me!"

Before Sharpay could shout her objections, Ryan and Chad were rolling around on the grass, making out in flurry of moans and sucking noises. Sharpay grimaced, turning away from the action.

"I think the kissing parts are only supposed to last a few seconds..." Troy mumbled, turning to face Sharpay, who was dry heaving next to him.

Finally, Chad released Ryan from his iron grip and took his place in the circle, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"See, told you Troy!" He said, passing the bottle to Sharpay, "I'm not gay."

"How did that little _show_ just prove that point?" Troy asked, shooting Chad a quizzical look.

"You're only gay if you make out with a guy and _like_ it," He smiled, "Did that look like I _liked_ it?"

"No comment..." Troy replied, turing to face Sharpay as she spun the bottle.

Sharpay looked up and smiled. "It's your lucky day, Bolton."

_Oh, c'mon God. Really?! _Troy thought to himself as he rubbed his palm to his temples. "Not right now Sharpay, okay?"

"NO!" She snapped testily, grabbed him by the collar. "You guys started this game. If you're gonna play, you have to play by the rules, got it?"

Troy gulped, breathing in deeply before he leaned in. Sharpay was quick to respond leaning in at the perfect angle, making their lips immediatly lock. He felt her arms slither up his back, resting around his neck. He let his hands rest on her waist as they kissed.

Little did they know, however, that Taylor McKessie was standing at the back door, looking on the scene through the back window. _That little witch... _She thought to herself, before darting back upstairs to send Gabriella a very well-deserved text message.

---

_SPLASH!_

Gabriella began laughing joyfully as she felt the refreshing lake water against her skin. She turned towards Trevor, smiling at him as she splashed some water towards him.

Trevor grinned at her. "Aren't ya glad you came in?"

Gabriella nodded her head furiously, smiling brightly. "I sure am. Gosh, this feels so refreshing."

"It does," Trevor remarked, treading water while Gabriella floated on her back.

"I haven't swam in a lake for... _forever_," Gabriella smiled. "The last time I went swimming was at Lava Springs."

"Where have I heard that name before?" Trevor wondered to himself aloud.

"Oh, it's the country club that Ryan and Sharpay's parents own back in Albuquerque," Gabriella quickly explained. "They're filthy stinkin' rich. The bathroom toilets look like they're made out of _gold_."

"Wow," Trevor deadpanned. "I'm sure Sharpay loves that."

"I'm pretty sure it was she who hinted the idea her dad, actually. Her dad is..." Gabriella paused, searching for the right word, "...wrapped around her finger."

Trevor tilted his head back to rest on the surface of the water and chuckled at her mention of the lyrics from the song they were previously listening to in the car.

"I always got the impression that he was."

Gabriella giggled, swimming towards a channel. "Hey, Trev! What's over there?"

Trevor smiled, swimming freestyle after her. "Oh, it's just another part a' the lake. We can go there, if you want. It's a lot quietter there... a lotta' teenagers hang out over there durin' late summer nights 'cuz no one else is there, usually."

"Sounds perfect," Gabriella winked at him playfully before diving underneath the water to swim towards the channel.

"Wait up, Gabs!" Trevor shouted after her, speed-swimming to catch up with her.

When Gabriella came up from under the water, she rubbed her eyes and opened them, only to see two naked bodies ready to jump into the water. Trevor popped up from underneath the water right behind her.

"Eek!" Gabriella shrieked, shielding her eyes from what she saw. "That is _so _not what I wanted to see."

"What the hell...?" Trevor mumbled, recognizing the man as Mr. Evans. But why would a happily married man be skinnydipping with a leggy brunette at a nearby lake?

Once the two jumped into the water and re-emerged, their heads visible to Trevor and Gabriella, Gabriella opened her eyes again.

"This is so... strange!" Gabriella whisper-hissed to Trevor. "That guy looks exactly like Mr. Evans!"

"No, I'm pretty sure that _is _Mr. Evans and the lady sure doesn't look like his sister," Trevor remarked, shivering at the thought. "Let's get outta' here."

"Yeah," Gabriella mumbled; it wasn't her place to make any judgements or assumptions. The two began swimming back from where they came from.

After re-emerging from underneath the water, the two breathed out as a sigh of relief. Good thing Mr. Evans didn't seem to recognize them or else things would have become even more awkward.

"Well, that was weird," Gabriella finally stated, breaking the silence between them.

"Yep," Trevor agreed, playing with the water around him. "Sure was."

"I'll race you across the lake," Gabriella winked at him, a competitive glint flashing in her brown eyes.

"You're on, Montez."

--

Taylor stomped outside, seething in utter rage as she saw her boyfriend make a fool of himself in his attempt to swing down from a pole like a pole dancer, not realizing that the tree was a pole and he appeared to be jumping a tree.

"What the hell are you on, Danforth?" Taylor demanded as she approached the other three, who were lying on the grass laughing hysterically.

"I'm a yummy, jummy, funny, lucky gummy bear! Oh I'm a jolly bear cuz I'm a gummy bear!" Chad sang to himself as he threw himself at Taylor. "Oh I'm a movin', groovin', jammin', singin'-"

"You're not a gummy bear, Chad!" Taylor screamed, attempting to slap some sense into him.

"Owie bowie!" Chad shouted in pain, rubbing the bruise on his cheek. "I'm a gummy bear! Oh, I'm a gummy bear!"

Taylor sighed, realizing it was useless to get any information out of him. She turned to the other three high teenagers.

"Will one of you tell me what's going on?"

Taylor received not legitimate responses since the only person who responded was Sharpay's brother, who mumbled something about the Chupacabra.

Her eyes flew to the joints resting on the grass. She shook her head in agitation.

"_This _is what ya'll did yesterday, isn't it? What is this, a new hobby or something? Because quite honestly, getting high before noon is just _pathetic_."

"Eh, chill the fuck _out_, McKessie," Sharpay snapped, her finger pointing to the dug up box. "There's more for ya, too!"

"I'm not interested in smoking and/or getting high! I am determined to go to Yale this summer and I have been successful in living above the influence for quite some time now and I _refuse _to break my promise now! I think you all are just a bunch of idiots because you're just hurting _yourselves,_" Taylor asserted her opinion. She noticed Ryan giggling like a school girl and rolled her eyes.

"You guys won't be laughing when I tell Mr. and Mrs. Evans!"

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" Troy immediately shot up. "_NOOO!_ DON'T SPOIL THE FUN!"

"WHAT FUN?" Taylor shouted maniacally. "My boyfriend thinks he's... Buster the Portuguese male stripper right now and is failing to climb up a cherry oak tree!"

"That's the fun of it! Watching your retard of a boyfriend act even more of a retard than he usually is!" Sharpay laughed cynically.

"You know _what_?" Taylor seethed, gritting her teeth in agitation, "I need to make another phone call, so if you druggies don't _mind_." Her remark was pointed at Troy, but he was to busy smoking to realize that taylor was going to tell Gabriella all about his little trist with Sharpay.

As soon as Taylor excused herself, Ryan went to join Chad near the tree, and Sharpay and Troy were left sitting together, his arms still sitting on her waist, where they were when they had been kissing.

"So that kiss..." He slurred, looking from her lips to her eyes and back.

Sharpay smirked, taking another puff and blowing it in his face. He coughed slightly, but still didn't release her.

"Pretty fantastic, _huh_," She stated. "See what you missed out on with that _Montez_ girl?"

Troy sighed - he didn't want to think about Gabriella running off with her newfound cowboy at the moment. "Sure, Sharpay. Whatever..."

"So..." She dawdled, running a hand through his glossy hair, "You want to, uh...do it again?"

Troy gave a slight frown, but felt compelled to move forward. Before he knew what was happening, he was kissing Sharpay Evans.

Troy was kissing Sharpay Evans. But not out of love or passion, of course. It was simply because he missed Gabriella's kisses, and he was desperate to make up for that by using someone else. Especially someone who was willing to play along.

When Troy kissed Gabriella, their kisses were filled with romance. Love bubbled over ever time their flesh met. Passion and drive kicked in when their hands wandered. Those were true kisses.

When Troy kissed Sharpay, however, he couldn't feel anything but the sharpness of her fake nails clawing at his skin. It was almost as if his lips were numb. Desperate to regain the passion he felt with Gabriella he pressed his lips down harder against Sharpay's, gaining some sort of dominance as he let her stick her tongue down his throat.

He held her head in his hand, tugging hard on her long blonde locks, wanting to feel something. _Anything_.

Finally, Sharpay pulled away. "T-that was..." she stuttered, her eyes wide, as if she were in a daze, "like nothing I've ever felt before. I mean, Troy. You...you're an _amazing_ kisser."

He wiped her strawberry-scented lipgloss off of his lips and stood up, taking one last puff of his joint before snubbing it out on the lawn. Helping Sharpay up, he raised an eyebrow, pulling her closer to him, wrapping an arm around her waist. Kissing her once more, he smiled deviously, then darted into the living room and made himself comfortable on the couch. Sharpay happily skipped after him.

---

Gabriella grabbed a towel from the back of Trevor's truck and walked back to the sand shore, laying the towel down next to his.

"You looked mighty fine in that, uh...bathing suit, Gabriella." Trevor smiled wickedly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She curled up against him, the water on their bodies causing them to practically stick.

"You're just saying that because I accidentaly wore a red bra today..." Gabriella groaned, slapping his rock solid abs playfully.

He rolled over, propping his head up with his hand, letting his eyes graze up and down her underwear-clad figure.

Gabriella looked up at him and pushed herself up, giving him a mindblowing kiss.

"_Damn_, Montez," he mumbled as he rolled ontop of her, showering her with kisses. "You _sure_ know how to tease a guy..."


	11. Flashbacks On Forever

**Flashbacks On Forever**

Sharpay and Troy cuddled up on the couch, watching a horse race on the TV screen. Troy knew what he was doing was wrong. He also knew it wasn't what he wanted. But Gabriella had done something ten times worse, even if she denied it. He could tell when someone had sex, and SEX was stamped across her and Trevor's foreheads for the whole world to see.

As he cradled Sharpay in his arms, who, by the way, seemed way more vulnerable than he had ever seen her, he thought about how he used to hold Gabriella - soft and sweet, not too close, but close enough so that their lips could instantly meet. He thought back to when they first kissed, a time when life was much better, and everything seemed clearer to him. She had been leaving for a trip to Malgoria, where some of her relatives lived. It was the last time he thought he'd see her until summer's end. That was the morning they had their first kiss - well...almost.

_[flashback]_

_Gabriella sighed, looking up at him, "I'm going to miss you so, so, so, so, so, _so _much." _

_Troy grinned goofily, "Not as much as I'm gonna miss you. You'll be out having tea…or whatever that stuff is with your grandparents while I'm stuck shooting hoops with my dad." _

_"Hey, you always said you loved basketball more than anything else in the world!" Gabriella told him, reminding him. _

_"Well…there are a few things I love even more…" Troy lowered his gaze, hoping she didn't see his cheeks flame red. _

_Luckily, Gabriella had been staring in the opposite direction, watching the rays of the sun dance wildly. _

_"Troy…I think I should probably tell you something, seeing as I'm going to be gone for the whole summer." She said, her voice dropping to a whisper. _

_"Yeah?" Troy sat up, his back inches away from the back-board of his chair. _

_"For a long time we've been friends…right?" _

_Troy nodded his head, signaling for her to continue. _

_"Well…when I moved here, I was alone, and then you came along and introduced me to Taylor." Gabriella sat down next to him in a matching wicker chair. "You had been my first friend. My _best friend. Ever since then I've been having, erm. Troy…I don't know how to say this, but I kinda li-"

_"_MIJA_! CAN YOU COME DOWN HERE FOR A MINUTE?" Maria called from the living room. _

_Gabriella cringed. "YEAH, MA! ONE SECOND!" _

_Troy's heart was beating hard against his chest. "You what, Gabriella? What?" _

_Gabriella sighed. "I-I'll tell you later, T-Troy." She stood up-he did the same. "I gotta go." _

_"Yeah. So, uh…I guess this is goodbye." Troy scratched the back of his neck idly. He didn't want to leave. _

_"Bye, Troy…" _

_"B-Bye Gabi. I-I'll miss you…" _

_Gabriella's hand lingered on the hem of his sweatshirt. His hand was resting on her back. _

_Slowly, Gabriella leaned in, closing her eyes. Troy did the same, wrapping his arms around her lower back as hers went around his neck. Their lips were mere centimeters away. _

_"_MIJA_! C'MON! I NEED YOUR HELP!" _

_Gabriella pulled away, just as their lips were about to collide. _

_"Um…I'll call you when I get to the airport." She mumbled, shifting her eyes down nervously. "Bye Troy…" _

_Before he could reply, she had stumbled into her room, closed her double doors, and shut the blinds, blocking Troy's view.  
_

_[end of flashback.]_

Troy snapped out of his flashback, checking the clock on the wall. They had been sitting around for a few hours now, and he knew that Gabriella would be back any minute. Quickly, he thought back to that innocent scene on Gabriella's balcony. Back then, he thought he would never be capable of hurting her. Now, all he wanted was to revel in his loss and plot revenge.

Somehow, however, that thought of 'revenge' just didn't feel right...

Troy looked down at Sharpay, kissing her tenderly. She looked up, positioning herself on his lap, kissing him slowly and carefully, like she didn't want to make a mistake.

_We shouldn't be doing this in here... _Troy thought to himself, as she slowly slipped her hand down the back of his shirt. _I don't want her seeing this. I don't want to hurt her._

"Sharpay, maybe we should-" But before he could finish his sentence, Sharpay pressed her lips against his, forcing him to let her tongue slither through.

"You look so hot right now..." She whispered reaching over towards the lamp and turning it off, trying to make the moment seem as romantic as possible. Before Troy could stop her, Sharpay slipped off her dress, revealing a pair of hot pink underwear.

"Woah, Shar...uh, I don't really wanna-" He started, trying to get up from under her. "I mean, this isn't really the right place for this..." He tried, not wanting to hurt her feelings.

Before she could reply, Troy heard keys jingling near the door.

"Oh shit..." He mumbled, pushing away from Sharpay. "Put your clothes back on! Gabriella's coming."

"Listen, Troy. I've waited so long for this..." She moaned in his ear, "That little Montez girl sure as hell isn't going to stop me now!"

Troy desperately flailed his arms, but just before he was going to push the girl off of him, he heard the door open, and two people making out.

_What the..._ He thought to himself as Sharpay kissed along his neck.

"I had a great day, Trev," He heard Gabriella whisper in between the kissing.

"I had a great day with you, too, Gabriella. I love you." Trevor said, leaning in for one last kiss. "You need me to, uh...escort you to your room?" He asked playfully.

Gabriella sighed, "Not tonight, but...call me." She winked.

Troy couldn't help himself. He had to groan. What kind of mushy crap was that? And since when was Gabriella such a big cock tease?

"What was that?" Troy heard Gabriella ask. Troy's eyes darted to the door, just as Gabriella saw them. Sharpay was half naked, straddled on top of Troy, kissing his neck with drive. Gabriella, startled, dropped her keys in utter disbelief.

Troy jumped, causing Sharpay to fall to the other side of the couch. Troy quickly wiped his lips. "Gabriella! I...thought you were going out with Trevor today?" He watched as Trevor emerged from behind the door.

"T-troy? Sharpay?" She stammered, practically falling back into Trevor's arms in alarm.

"Oh, hey Gabriella," Sharpay said in a sultry voice, sauntering over to the two of them. "You caught us at a bad time, I guess. Troy! I'll be waiting in your bedroom."

Gabriella gasped for air and turned to face Trevor, her eyes wild with tears.

"Calm down, Gabby." He soothed, rubbing her back gently, "He's your ex now. Just...just X him out of your life."

"Apparently I have to..."She mumbled, giving Trevor a kiss salty with her own tears.

"You've got me now, and that's all that matters..."

Troy looked on, scoffing and laughing cynically to himself as Trevor calmed down his ex-girlfriend._ Whatever..._ He thought to himself as he got up to leave.

"Have a nice afternoon, lovebirds," He spat before chasing after Sharpay, knocking into Trevor in the process.

_I've got bigger fish to fry...  
_

Taylor brushed a hair away from Gabriella's eye as she finished telling her the story.

"And then, when I came in, he was making out with her. She was practically naked, Tay! And he looked like he was...enjoying it..." She teared up again, grabbing a tissue and blowing hard.

"Aww, honey! Didn't you get my texts? I called you twice but you didn't pick up."

"I left my phone in the kitchen," Gabriella sniffled. Wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand.

Taylor smiled sympathetically. "Listen," She started, "as my sister always says, 'boys are hunters.' When they feel the urge, they pounce on any animal...or girl...they see. Sometimes, when a boy is...grieving, he'll act out. Maybe he was just acting out..."

"PRACTICALLY HAVING SEX WITH SOMEONE ISN'T JUST 'ACTING OUT'" Gabriella shouted, throwing her pillow across the room.

"Sounds familiar. I wonder where I've heard that story before..." Taylor said sarcastically.

Gabriella scowled, "Okay, so I haven't made some very good choices this past week, but Tay, c'mon! I'm not almost-having sex with a person I said I hated!"

"No. You're not." Taylor stood up, walking towards the door. "But you're almost having sex with someone who you just met, claim to love, and whom you cheated on your boyfriend of nearly two years with. How's that for one-upping you, huh?"

With that, Taylor flung open the door and stepped out. "Call me when the old Gabriella gets back, 'cuz I'm not really into this new model."

_---_

_"Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum!"_ Ryan sang, swaying his hips from side to side as he held his iPod in his right hand and let his left hand rest on his moving hips.

Gabriella stomped into the living room, throwing herself on the couch in frustration.

"Ryan!" She called out desperately, attempting to catch the attention of her favorite platonic guy friend. Ryan had a certain sense to him that made him approachable for any sort of advise and his colorful personality almost always cheered her up. Just watching him hum and dance to Rihanna's song was already rather uplifting.

_"_Gabs,_ whazzup girlfraann,"_ Ryan purposely squealed in a high pitch voice, playing the part of the gay best friend rather well. He ran over to her, air-kissing both her cheeks. "_Oh, dahling, you look spect-ah-cularrr!_ Where'd ya get ya hair done, _dollface_?"

Gabriella giggled, embracing him in a quick hug. "Oh, you know. Only the most _fah-bulous_ salon in this small town!"

Ryan grinned, still using his fake voice, making it seem as if he was on helium. (Gabriella wasn't aware yet of his taking of LSD and weed). "Terrr-iffic, sweetheart! Now, what asshole and/or bitch made you upset? Who do I have to hunt down and smack with my purse?" Ryan struck a pose dramatically.

Gabriella burst out into a fit of laughter, resting her hand on Ryan's chest. "Oh, gosh, Ry. You're too funny. You can stop now, but thanks so much... that really gave me a good laugh."

Ryan smiled and nodded, his voice returning to its original state. "No problem."

Gabriella let out a sigh of relief. "So, I came back from hanging with Trevor this afternoon and guess what the first thing I see is..."

Ryan pondered on the thought. "Uh... Chad giving the tree head?"

Gabriella blinked. "What?"

"Err... I was kidding," Ryan covered his slip-up. "Um, I'm gonna guess it has something to do with Troy?"

Gabriella nodded sadly. "Correct."

"Look, Gabriella, you gotta understand - he's in a really depressed state ever since you... well, broke it off. He has to turn to something ... anything, really."

"I understand that, but..."

"And I mean, joints are pretty damn good anti-depressants."

Gabriella took a double take as her mouth fell open. "WHAT?"

"WAIT. CRAP. I THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT HIM GETTING HIGH IN THE BACKYARD!"

"Troy got HIGH? AGAIN?!"

"...no?"

Gabriella wanted to scream. She wanted to trudge up those stairs and beat the living crap outta him until he vowed to never, ever do that again.

"I was talking about him being with Sharpay, but this - THIS IS FIVE MILLION TIMES WORSE!"

Ryan cringed. "You didn't hear it from me, kay?"

Gabriella sighed, aggravated. "Who was he getting high with?"

"Sharpay... Chad..." Ryan went down the list, being sure not to include himself.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "I expected nothing less. Gosh, I can't believe them! You didn't get high did you?"

"N-no...?"

"Good," Gabriella sighed in relief. "At least someone has some sense not to do it again after a horrible experience the night before."

"Oh-Oh yeah... definitely. And, um, just so ya know... the rest of us - I mean, them, didn't really smoke too much. It was only Chad who went off the wall. Which ex-explains why Troy and Shar are o-okay right now and Chad's passed out on his bed."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Goodness, what are we gonna do with Chad?"

"I-I don't know! Teach him a lesson?"

Gabriella's eyes lit up. "Ryan, you're brilliant! That's exactly what they need... a lesson. If they saw how much damage can be caused to them from smoking then... then maybe they would lay off-"

"I'm feeling rather tired," Ryan cut in, eager to stop her from talking. "Goodnight. Good luck with your relationship problems and if I might put in my own two-cents in this..." _Cough! Cough!_ "CHOOSE TROY!" And with that, he bounded up the stairs, nearly falling over on the slippery stairs.

"MOM! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT USING PLEDGE TO CLEAN THE STAIRCASE! GOODNESS, WE'RE NOT AT HOME, MOMMY! DOROTA CAN'T CLEAN UP AFTER US! PLEDGE IS ONLY USED FOR _FURNITURE!"_

Gabriella blinked out of surprise and shook her head, exiting the living room onto the porch. She felt the cool humid air stick to her skin as she stared out into the dark, starry night.

She knew she wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight, so there was no use of going to bed.

She glanced up at the stars longingly, wondering how things became so, so complicated.

_[flashback]_

_"What the hell?" Gabriella exclaimed as Troy stumbled into her bedroom, obviously drunk. His eyes were bloodshot and he was panting heavily._

_Troy mumbled, "I didn't know what to do..."_

_"YOU DON'T TURN TO DRUGS AND ALCOHOL EVERY TIME WE HAVE A FIGHT, TROY!" She shouted, pushing him away from her as he reached out for a hug._

_"Gabriella, I didn't know what to do..." He repeated, slurring his words._

_"What kind of person are you?"_

_[end of flashback.]_

Gabriella began counting the stars, like she and Troy used to do. She felt a tear forming in the corner of her eye as she thought back to the time before they used to fight - when thing seemed perfect. Almost too perfect.

_[flashback]_

_"Well, I'm definitely convinced…" He winked as she kissed his jaw before running to his open trunk and pulling out a thick wool blanket. _

_When she returned, he was lying down, staring up at the stars. _

_"There's Orion's Belt…" She whispered, pointing to three bright stars lined up in a row. "And there is the North Star…" _

_He pulled the blanket over them and wrapped his hands around her waist. "Come and count the stars with me, don't leave me 'till we count 'em all-" _

_"I want to stay with you," She finished, letting him give her a kiss on the forehead.  
_

_"How many?" Troy finally said, after about ten minutes of staring up at the sky; they would always do this, lie around in her backyard on warm nights and watch the stars and then guess how many there are. _

_"Millions," She answered, shifting her head towards Troy's, so she could rest it near his shoulder while they watched. _

_Troy smiled, "Billions." _

_Gabriella grinned, "Trillions," She said softly. _

_They both looked at each other and said simultaneously, "Infinite."  
_

_[end of flashback.]_

Something about the stars, and counting them with Troy, had made her feel so special. Now, as she stared up at them, she couldn't help but think about her life with Troy. What would it have been like if she'd never broken up with him?

_[flashback]_

_Taelor smiled, "Do you like singing with mommy?" She asked in her sweet four-year-old voice. Troy couldn't help but smile when he noticed how much it resembled Gabriella's own voice._

_"I sure do," Troy said._

_Taelor grinned, "Can you and mommy sing for me and Twevor?" She said, mis-pronouncing her R's._

_Troy chuckled. "We already do that for you guys at bedtime."_

_Taelor pouted, "But we always fall asleep! We want to hear you and mommy weally sing!"_

_"Yeah!" Trevor piped in, getting up from his play-area, noticing his mom was standing by the stars, smiling and listening to the conversation. He grinned excitedly and lifted up his arms, "Mommy!"_

_Gabriella laughed at Troy's shocked face as he turned around, completely unaware that she was listening. She walked towards the twin's play area and picked up Trevor, cradling him in her arms. She smiled and played with him and laughed along when he giggled._

_"You look vewy pwetty mommy!" Trevor said, as Troy smiled and picked up Taelor in his arms and walked towards them._

_"Aww, thank you sweetie!" Gabriella said, kissing her son's temple._

_"Hey! Don't I get a kiss?" Troy joked, cradling Taelor, "You look beautiful, Mrs. Bolton."_

_Gabriella blushed as Troy came up and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek._

_"Come on, let's get the twins dressed!"_

_[end of flashback.]_

_"_Mind if I join you?" A voice said from behind her. Gabriella shot up, spinning around to see none other than Troy Bolton, standing in the rear door frame.

Gabriella didn't respond, trying to catch her breath. Should she say yes and risk interrogation? Or should she say no and hurt him again?

"May I, Miss Montez?" He asked again, advancing towards her slowly.

Gabriella fumbled with the hem of her skirt, nodding quickly and laying back down to face the stars. She felt the warmness of his body as he laid down next to her on the grass - not to close, but not to far away. Just like old times.

Troy stared at her, brushing a hair away from her face slowly, as if relishing every moment he got to be close to her. Gabriella tensed up. Did this count as cheating?

"Gabs," He said slowly, taking deep breaths, "Can I ask you something?"

Gabriella propped herself up on her elbow, looking back at Troy's blue orbs. She wanted to lean in and kiss him, but she knew she shouldn't. It wouldn't be right to Trevor. She sighed, responding, "Sure..."

"Why did you do it?" He asked. His voice didn't sound tense or angry or even vengeful. It sounded honest and concerned - something she wasn't used to with him when he asked her something serious like that.

"Do...what?" She replied. She had done so many bad things that past week, she wasn't sure what he was referring to.

Troy reached over to her, resting a hand on the small of her back. This time, she didn't tense up. "Why'd you sleep with him?"

Gabriella sat up, letting his hand fall to the ground. "Troy, do you want to know the truth?" She said, gritting her teeth a bit.

"That would help..." he muttered under her breath.

"I didn't have sex with Trevor Macuddy. I almost had sex with him. Do you wanna know why he stopped me?" She took a breath, her expression changing from calm to annoyed. "He stopped me because I said that I loved you. I called out your name, not his."

Troy shot up, furrowing his brows in confusion. "But...I thought...I mean, the hickeys and the bitten lip...and the hair. You looked so-"

"I was horrified, Troy. I was horrified that I could even think about sleeping with anyone other than you."

"But what about the time at Trevor's house?" He asked, rubbing his hand across her forearm.

Gabriella closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears from forming, "I don't know...Troy, to be perfectly honest, it was a mistake. I went over there to apologize for the prior incident and before I knew what was happening, we were telling each other we loved one another."

"But you loved me...at least you said you did. You loved me and you didn't have sex with me."

"And I didn't sleep with Trevor, either!" She shouted, her face turning a pale red, "I love him, Troy. I really do. I love Trevor Macuddy. But..." She cupped his cheek, rubbing her finger against his cheekbone, "I love you, too. You were and will always be my first love. You showed me what love really is."

He looked away, scuffing his shoes against the ground over and over.

"Troy, I didn't have sex with you because I wasn't ready. And, frankly, I wasn't ready with Trevor, either. It was...a spur of the moment thing. I know if we had actually done it, I would've regretted it for the rest of my life. I mean...I tried to tell him to stop, but it was too much for me. If you hadn't walked in-"

"If I hadn't walked in, you would be pregnant with Trevor's baby."

Gabriella stopped, narrowing her eyes at him, "How stupid do you think I am, Troy. I would've waited until he put one on."

Troy shook his head, sticking his hand in his jeans pocket, "Did he have one before you guys started making out? Are you sure he would've put one on? If you couldn't even say no when he tried to seduce you, what makes you think you would've told him to stop and put on a condom? Like you said, it was all 'too much' for you."

Gabriella dropped her hand, letting it land on her own thigh. "I'm really sorry, Troy." She mumbled, laying back on the ground. "Besides...I'm not the only one who's done not-so-nice things this week. What about you and Sharpay, huh? You sure looked cozy on that couch..."  
She said sarcastically.

"Me and Sharpay aren't exactly dating...She was just a hook-up..." Troy coughed.

"So," Gabriella started up again, turning her head to face him slightly, "You're hooking up with someone you claimed you couldn't stand? _That's _logical..."

Troy sat up again, looking down at her, "We didn't do anything. It was just kissing. And besides...I was-"

"High? Stoned?" Gabriella offered, looking into his eyes. "I knew about the alcohol, but since when have you become a junkie?"

Troy clenched his jaw, "I was so depressed, Gabriella. I missed your touch, your kiss, your hugs, the feeling of you next to me.."

"So you turned to drugs?" Gabriella asked. "That's not the answer, Troy, and you know it."

"Well, you weren't making it very easy for me to have a conversation with you!" He shouted.

"We're having a damned coversation now!"

He breathed heavily as he sat next to her, Gabriella's eyes never leaving his own.

"I'm sorry, Gabriella. Sharpay doesn't deserved to be fucked around with, and neither do you. I don't want to have to mess with your mind to get you to have a conversation with me."

"Then don't," She said, reaching for his neck, wrapping her arm around him. "Just be yourself, Troy. Don't turn to drugs to make you feel better. And certainly don't make out with random people when your high. Just talk to me."

Gabriella pushed on his neck, causing him to lean down, while she propped herself up. She could feel his minty-fresh breath hitting her cheeks as they leaned in to kiss. Just as their lips met, however, Troy pushed her away, causing her to fall back to the ground.

"Gabriella, no!" He said as he rose to his feet, "I...I can't. You have a boyfriend. I have...Sharpay," He paused briefly. "I think. And you don't know what you want. Just talk to me when you get your thoughts straight. Until then, have fun with Mr. Right." With that, Troy slowly walked back towards the door.

"TROY!" She screamed, tears flooding her eyes again.

Troy turned to face her, trying to prevent his chin from quivering. "Goodbye, Gabriella."

* * *


	12. Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have,,,

**Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off**

Chad rubbed his aching head, resting his head on the comfortable pillow. It was a rainy morning, so none of the boys had the will to get up. Last night had been horrible for both Troy and Chad. While Troy had to end things completely with Gabriella, Chad had to listen to a rant from Taylor about his inappropriate behavior.

Taylor had given him two days to "straighten out" and if he didn't stop his ways by then, it was over between them as well.

God, he really hated when Taylor was on her period.

"I'm telling you, dude. My girlfriend was already pissed from her fight with your... _ex_, so she just completely released her anger on _me_. _Great_. Just what I needed."

As sorry as Troy felt for Chad, he did want to remind him that at least Taylor didn't cheat on him, then dump him for a cowboy, then attempt to cheat on the cowboy again with him, only to

realize that she really didn't know what the hell she wanted. But for Chad's sake and perhaps what remained of his sanity, he didn't go into the details.

"We should probably put that shit we found underground back where we found it," Troy stated; he had a small headache this morning as well, but not for the reasons Chad did. Chad had an excruciating painful migraine because he had gotten unbelievably high the afternoon before while Troy was experiencing a headache from the combination of stress, the rain, and other upsetting circumstances surrounding his life.

Chad's eyes welled up with tears of sadness. "B-But... it-it was so, _so_ good-"

"Ya know, now that Gabriella and I have settled the... loose pieces of our relationship, so to speak, I've realized how retarded it is for us to get high," Troy muttered. "Dude, it's bad enough if we make a habit of this... but what happens when we get home? I wouldn't be surprised if dad made me take a drug test and then we'd be in a huge pile of crap."

"Fuck!" Chad hissed loudly. "I didn't even think about that. Ah, damn Ryan for digging up that box of shit! God, whoever buried that down there must've had _loads_ of fun with it... makes me wonder why they buried it there in the first place."

"Probably for the same reason we're going to re-bury it, _right _Chad?" Troy checked, making sure Chad would agree to the plan.

"Guess so," He mumbled longingly, his hands flying to his burning forehead.

Troy sighed out of relief. "Alright, man. Let's get up. I'm tired of moping around and making an ass of myself. As of today, I'm going to start trying to get over Gabriella since it's obvious that she's not going to figure out who she really loves anytime soon. And I'm kind of tired of her bull crap."

"Good for you, man," Chad smiled, sticking out his palm to high-five Troy. "Bros before hoes!"

---

"Hey, _Troy_," Sharpay cooed at him upon his arrival in the dining room. Troy let out an annoyed sigh as she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned in for a kiss.

He simply brushed her off and distangled her thin arms from his neck. "Sorry Sharpay, but we can't do this. I really hate stringing you along... it's not fair to you."

Sharpay blinked before laughing drily. "Oh, silly Troy! You haven't been stringing me along! I'm totally okay with being friends with benefits, hun!"

Troy stared at her blankly. "You don't care that I'm still in love with another girl and that I return none of your affection for me?"

Sharpay shrugged off-handedly. "Well, I figured you weren't over her. The thing is - I'm totally okay with being your shoulder to cry on!" She flashed him a thousand-watt smile, a result of her teeth being laser-whitened.

He looked at her hungrily, then coming to his senses, he quickly shook his head. "I don't _need _a shoulder to cry on. Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to get some toast," Troy mumbled, pushing Sharpay to the side to grab a plate. Chad, who already began chowing down his breakfast, signaled thumbs-up to him. Sharpay, appalled, just stared after him in shock, her hands grazing her hips.

Huffing, she took the seat next to Troy and continued to provoke him. "Listen, _Troysie._ Gabriella... I saw her and Trevor making out by the doorway early this morning before you were awake-"

Troy accidentally bit on his tongue instead of the toast, flinching at the pain.

"And they were _completely _all over each other! It was like they were _ANIMALS_!" Sharpay exclaimed, her tone sounding more excited than sympathetic like she initially intended it to be. "He mumbled something about going up to her room, but she casually reminded him that Taylor and I were still asleep. So he scooped her up and left the house, taking her to his place to do God knows what."

Sharpay was lying through her teeth and she knew it. She woke up only half an hour ago, which explained her attire in a pink bathrobe, and had not even seen Gabriella that morning. Her father, who quickly slipped out the door for his _plans _for the day, mumbled to her something about her mother and Gabriella going picking for berries just a few minutes ago. But of course, no one currently in the house knew about that, so it seemed like a reasonable topic to lie about.

Truthfully, she was telling this only to make Troy more vulnerable and susceptible to her will.

"And I know it might be hard for you to hear, but she's slept with him multiple times. She told me herself."

Troy dropped his fork, which made a clang with its contact with the plate.

"You're lying," Troy accused her, believing that Gabriella was one hundred percent honest with him the night before with her answer to his question. "Gabriella told me last night that she never slept with him."

Sharpay just smirked, glad that her plan was falling into action. "Haven't you _heard_, Troysie? Lying is the most fun Gabriella can have without taking her clothes off."

_Is it still me that makes you sweat?  
Am I who you think about in bed?  
When the lights are dim and your hands are shaking as you're sliding off your dress?  
Then think of what you did  
And how I hope to God he was worth it._

--

Gabriella smiled as she picked a patch of strawberries clean. When Mrs. Evans had invited her along to go berry-picking, she had been apprehensive. What would Troy think when she didn't show up for breakfast? But after careful consideration, she folded and went along with Janice. Berry-picking had ended up being a real mind number, taking away all thoughts of Troy, Trevor, and boys in general.

"Y'know," Janice said, turning to face Gabriella, "I wish Sharpay could be more like you..."

"Huh?" Gabriella asked, not looking up from placing the berries into her wicker basket.

Mrs. Evans smiled, resting a hand on Gabriela's shoulder, "Don't tell her I told you this, but Sharpay had an abortion three months ago." She leaned in closer, "Apparently, she was having a baby by someone she called the 'Afro Lunatic'. I just wish she wasn't so darn promiscuous."

Gabriella's eyes went wide as she turned to face Janice.

"You're so sweet, innocent, virginal - oh, in a good way, dear. I mean...you're wholesome and she's so...spoiled." Janice concluded her thought as she popped a raspberry into her mouth.

"Thank you for the compliment, Mrs. Evans, but..." Gabriella sighed, "I'm not as innocent as you think I am..."

Janice cocked her head to the side, "Are you talking about..."

"Me and Trevor? Yeah. I mean...we haven't _done_ anything yet, but I feel so dirty - like I really did cheat on Troy. I mean, he cheated on me, too, but that doesn't really count because that was a few days after we broke up. But, anyways, I just don't feel right when I'm around Trevor anymore..."

Mrs. Evans smiled, "Listen, darling. You may have cheated, but you're young and in love. Accidents are to be expected. But when you're with Trevor, don't think of Troy and vise versa. Give those boys the attention they deserve. You can't be kissing one and thinking of another. Figure out what _you_ want before you try and please someone else."

---

Troy felt a rise up his back as he took his shower. Turning around, he opened the curtain slightly, only to lay eyes on a lingerie-clad Sharpay, holding a bottle of Bacardi in one hand and his towel in the other.

"Hey there, sexy boy," She smirked, knowing her plan was working perfectly. He covered himself with his hands, looking around awkwardly.

"Sh-Sharpay," He said, shivering, "C-can you give me m-my t-t-towel?"

"Only if you let me see what's under those hands first!" She picked delicately at the shower curtain, trying to pull it back some.

"SHARPAY!" He shouted.

"Ugh, FINE!" Sharpay exclaimed, "You ruin all the fun." She threw him a towel, which he wrapped around himself as he stepped out.

After Troy was fully covered, he looked at Sharpay up and down. "What are you wearing? And...why are you here?"

"Well, I was wondering if you were still interested in my offer. Y'know, friends-with-benefits?" She asked, running a manicured nail up and down his bicep.

"Uh," He said, looking her up and down once more, "Not really."

"WHAT!" She cried.

"I mean, I don't want this cycle to start up again. Gabriella cheats, I cheat back, then she cheats, then I cheat back. It's all a little too much for me."

"But she's at Trevor's right now making love!" She screamed, setting the Bacardi down on the sink.

Troy sighed - he had forgotten all about that juicy tidbit. Sharpay reached out for him, kissing him slowly. He didn't kiss back, but he didn't push away.

"Fine! Fine!" He finally said, pushing away from her. "Friends-with-benefits. Nothing more."

"Works for me!" She said with a wink as she took a swig of the Bacardi before slinking out of the bathroom, leaving Troy dripping wet and cold.

"Oh, BTW," She said, poking her head back into the bathroom, "Your bath towel fell quite some time ago." Sharpay giggled pointing to his..._area_.

"_SHIT_!"

--

Ryan hummed as he took a walk to run a little errand for his mother. Apparantly, his mother had a friend who worked at a local club and she asked for him to deliver a note to the waitress. He smiled as he read the sign of the club - Teasy McDryhumps. He furrowed his brow at the strange title, but went along into the club.

Upon entering, his mouth dropped open.

_NO. Fucking. WAY._

Ryan grinned ear-to-ear.

He had finally reached heaven. Or hell. Whichever fit in better.

On the outside, it looked like a local pub - brick and wood with a slanty roof and neon signs in the windows telling him what types of beer they sold - but on the inside, the feel was completely different. Two women were sliding up and down silver poles on the bar, while drunk, muscular biker-type men in leather studded vests whooped and catcalled, throwing dollar bills in the air and tucking them into the womens underwear. Blaring music drowned out most of the talking and bright laser-lights cut through the smoke-filled air. A red haired man smoking a cigar was making out with one of the dancers in the corner, while his apparent freind, a stockey guy in black sweatpants, was dancing on the bar with another pole-dancer.

Ryan cooly walked in, checking out the scene. Just then, a man wearing nothing but a black bow tie and briefs stood in front of him, running a hand down his six pack.

"Hey there, sexy," The man said, giving Ryan a wink.

Oh yeah, this was _definitely_ heaven.

Just as Ryan started to pull a hundred dollar bill out of his pocket, he noticed a familiar face undressing in a dark corner next to a brown-haired beauty.

"DAD?!" He shouted. Luckily, the music was much to loud for anyone to hear him. As the muscular man started kissing Ryan's neck, Ryan looked on in disgust as the brown-haired beauty began doing the same to his father.

_What the hell is he doing at a strip club? _Ryan thought to himself as the muscular stripper discreetly slipped the hundred dollar bill out of Ryan's hand and into his briefs. After he took the money, he casually walked away. Ryan didn't notice this because he was to busy watching as his father had mad sex with a stripper against the back wall, while four men with tattoos and buzz cuts looked on, shouting inaudible comments to Frank.

Forget about what Ryan said about heaven. This was most _definitely_ hell.

---

Gabriella smiled as she walked into the house, followed by Mrs. Evans. Both of them had small red juice stains all over them.

"That was _sooo_ much fun!" Gabriella giggled, pulling a piece of twig out of Mrs. Evans' hair.

Janice tried to wipe some of the strawberry stains from Gabriella's blouse, "Most definitely fun, Gabriella! I didn't know we could get this messy while picking strawberries!"

Gabriella sighed, staring at herself in the living room mirror. "I never knew picking berries could be so...relaxing." She tucked her long locks behind her ear as Mrs. Evans moved towards the kitchen, putting their basket of berries onto the dining room table.

"Thanks..." Gabriella started, following her into the kitchen, pulling a raspberry from the basket. "You gave me some great advice today."

Mrs. Evans gave her a small smile in return, "Anytime, Gabby."

"Anyways, I'm gonna go get changed and then run over to Trev's. We need to talk."

With that, Gabriela bounded out of the kitchen and up the stairs, running into the girls's bedroom. Once she locked the door, Gabriella quickly stripped off her stained jeans and shirt, changing into her Wet Seal gray-and-black tank dress and a pair of Madden Girl Sicilly style black gladiator sandals. Fluffing her hair up with her fingers, she gave herself a sad smile in the mirror before turning to leave.

She needed to talk to Trevor. _No_ kissing. _No_ getting carried away. Just _talking_.

Gabriella gulped as her legs began to wobble. _What if they got carried away again?_ She thought to herself, moving down the stairs and out the door.

As she walked out, Sharpay walked in, wearing a ridiculously flashy beige beaded Badgley Mischka tulle V-neck dress. "Going somewhere?" She asked with a smirk, noticing Gabriella's outfit - a mix of dressy and casual. It seemed more serious than what she'd been wearing.

"Coming from somewhere?" Gabriella replied sarcastically, raising an eyebrow.

Sharpay crossed her arms over her chest, "Just remember to bring a condom. Don't want a pregnancy scare!" Sharpay said, smirking.

"Like you did with Chad?" Gabriella retorted, knowing that Sharpay wouldn't be able to reply.

"I-I...it wasn't-"

"Yeah, didn't think so..." At that, Gabriella flipped her hair over her shoulder and started towards Trevor's house, knowing that she had won this round.

---

Chad crept outside towards the backyard where Taylor sat, reading a book on her lap.

"Hey, Tay!" He chirped cheerfully.

She glared daggers at him and put down her book. "What the hell do you want, Chad? I told you to talk to me after you got a hold of yourself."

"Well, you'll be happy to know that me and Ryan are gonna bury the stuff we found."

Taylor blinked. "Okay. You go do that."

"Uh..." Chad waited for a reaction - any reaction, really.

She looked up from her book, tilting her head in confusion. "Uh... is there a reason you're standing here wasting my precious reading time?"

"Oh... I was just expecting you to, um... I don't know. Give me a lecture on how I should have never dug it up with Ryan... yell at me for being a dumbass... you know, the usual."

"Well, Chad Danforth," Taylor closed her book, letting it rest on her lap as she looked up at him with a fake smile. "Would you like me to give you a list full of reasons as to why I have given up yelling at you?"

"...sure?"

"Splendid," Taylor replied robotically, mentally preparing a list of reasons. "One, you never listen to me. Two, even if you do listen to me, you never follow my advice. Three, you say my yelling gives you a 'headache'. Four, you use your headaches as an excuse not to do schoolwork/not getting good grades. Five, I believe that reverse psychology is the best way to go because according to a psychiatris-"

"_Taaay_, you're giving me a headache again!" Chad whined.

Taylor rolled her eyes and sighed out of frustration.. "Chad, I'm not even gonna bother anymore. Being with you has caused me to lose IQ points, I'm sure. I mean, I'm going to Yale and you're going to..." Taylor scrunched up her nose and muttered with distaste. "U of A."

"Hey, why do you say it like that!" Chad protested, offended. "You make it sound like it's a community college or something."

Taylor rolled her eyes. "The point is, you're not going to _get anywhere_ in life on a basketball scholarship to some rundown Catholic school that just reopened after being closed down for twenty years."

"Pshh... well... NOT ALL OF US CAN BE SMART AND GO TO YALE!"

"Well, _obviously_."

Chad stuck out his bottom lip, turning serious because of the gravity of the matter. "Why do you always put me down like that? Does it make you feel better about yourself or something?"

_I'm sick and tired of your attitude  
I'm feeling like I don't know you  
You tell me that you love me then you cut me down  
And I need you like a heartbeat  
But you know you got a mean streak  
Makes me run for cover when you're around_

Taylor knit her brows. "Why would that make me feel better?"

"Taylor, come on. I may be stupid when it comes to school, but I'm not an idiot. If you're seriously saying that my failures don't make you feel even a _tiny _bit better about yourself, then I think you're just lying to yourself."

"How can you say that?" Taylor whispered lowly. "That's - I'm... I'm not _that _horrible."

"I didn't say you were," Chad replied monotone. "You can ask anyone, really. I mean, even _Troy's _noticed. He told me multiple times that you treat me like a dog. I'm not a pet, Taylor. And I know I haven't been the greatest boyfriend or anything, but all those times that I did stupid things, I just wanted to make you smile or laugh... like you did earlier on in our relationship..."

_And here's to you and your temper  
Yes I remember what you said last night  
and I know that you see what you're doing to me  
Tell me why_

_"Chad_," Taylor started off, feeling anger rush through her veins. "There's nothing _funny _about getting high."

Chad shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, that was not what I was talking about. I meant my outfit on the first day. And as for that, I get it... I just wanted to test it - to try it. I was curious."

Taylor shook her head angrily. "You _promised _me that you would never do something like this. You know how much I hate drugs and those ridiculous idiots who do it. I don't want you to turn into them, Chad!"

"Have you ever thought that maybe if you had a little more faith in me then I wouldn't do things like this?"

Taylor thought about it for a second before bluntly replying. "No. Chad, I know you pretty well by now. You're a good guy at heart, I'm pretty sure. You are funny, but I personally do not find most of your antics humorous. And in case you haven't noticed, I don't think I'm a better _person _than anyone else."

Chad scoffed.

Taylor ignored his interruption and continued. "Quite frankly, I really don't. I think I'm a _smarter _person than most of the population, but that doesn't necessarily make me look _down_ on anyone."

"Don't you dare lie," Chad hissed. "All you ever do is look down at people. _Basketball lunkheads_?

Before Gabriella came along, you wouldn't have even been caught dead socializing with one of _us _in fear of 'losing IQ points'." Chad took a big step away from her. "Just like you said a few minutes ago."

_Why ah ah  
Do you have to make me feel small  
so you can feel whole inside  
Why … do you have to put down my dreams  
So you're the only thing on my mind_

"And what about you, _Chad_?" Taylor stood up, edging closer to him. "And how you treated the nerds at East High-"

"Whoa, whoa," Chad stopped her before she could continue. "I'm not talking so much bout the past as I am bout the future. Don't you see, Taylor? The difference is that _I changed_, but you... you haven't really changed all that much. The only reason you began to tolerate any of us was because of Gabriella."

"Will you leave her out of it?" Taylor snapped. "I don't want to have this conversation."

"Why?" Chad demanded. "And if you're not gonna talk about this to me, then who else will you talk about it with, huh? Hope you haven't forgotten that you and Gabriella aren't on speaking terms as of yet. Who else are you gonna run to? _Sharpay_? Oh wait, you look down on her as well."

Taylor clenched her teeth. "That's different and _you know it_. Sharpay's a rotten, conniving-"

"Hey, I didn't say that... all I said is that you have a tendency to bring everyone down."

Taylor remained silent, not knowing a rebut to his statement.

Chad sighed in resignation. "I haven't been fair with you. Taylor, I think we should break up."

Taylor's mouth fell open in shock. "Wha-what?"

Chad shook his head. "Trust me, after what I'm about to tell you, you would've dumped me anyway. I'm being extremely honest right now, so I might as well let you know about the other messed up crap I've done... stuff which you don't know about."

Taylor blinked, anticipating what would come out of his mouth.

"I think you might wanna sit down for this," Chad muttered, moving a safe distance away from her before speaking.

For the first time ever, it was _Chad _doing the talking and Taylor listening as her heart shattered into millions of pieces.

_I take a step back, let you go  
I told you I'm not bulletproof  
Now you know._


	13. Here Comes Goodbye

**Here Comes Goodbye**

Troy paced across the boys room, sighing deeply as he thought to himself about the past week - his screw-ups, Gabriella's faults, and the things that had happened between the two of them. Could he honestly look her in the eyes and see the same sweet and innocent girl he had been going out with for months? If anyone else had been going through the same situation, they would've looked at Gabriella with a death glare, shooting daggers at her and her "new life", but Troy couldn't help but think that she didn't understand what she had gotten herself into - that she hadn't intentionally cheated. He still saw her as innocent, pure, loving, kind, and beautiful.

Despite this, he still wasn't ready to get back together with her, not that she had asked him to, but if she had, he would've said no. She still needed to get her head on straight and he still wanted to explore what was out there for him besides a long-term relationship, which was all he had known during his time with Gabriella.

Of course, there were those times before he had met her - the hook-ups with cheerleaders from West High, the..._fullfilments _from drunk girls at parties, the showing off by kissing two girls simultaneously, those days of spin-the-bottle or seven-minutes-in-heaven at one of Chad's rowdy all-nighters. But all that stuff was in the past. He was no longer that reckless. Gabriella had changed him for the better.

He gulped as he crushed the empty water bottle in his hand, throwing it onto Ryan's nearby bed.

Flopping down onto his own bed, he tried to imagine what life would be like with Sharpay as a girlfriend, and not just a "friend with benefits"

_-[flash forward]-_

_"Trooooooooooooooooy!" Sharpay screeched from the nursery. "Sharpette needs her diaper changed!"_

_Troy rubbed his temples and groaned, closing his eyes to try and make his pounding headache subside._

_"You're already there!" He finally replied, shouting up the stairs, "Why don't you do it!"_

_"Becaaaaaaaaaaaaause! I don't touch shit! I don't care if I didbirth this baby, Troysie! I'm not touching its crap! That's disgusting!" Sharpay shouted back, racing down the stairs with the baby in her arms._

_Troy looked up, watching as his wife dropped the baby into his hands, Sharpay folding her arms and shaking her head in disgust._

_"Oh, and babe?" She said as she turned to leave, "When you're done, Troy Jr. and Sharpini need their diapers changed, too. And when you finish that up, I'll be waiting upstairs."_

_Sharpay dropped her robe, revealing nothing but her lacy black underwear. "I want another baby girl so I can name her Shar-Pei Jr. We're going to keep trying until we get it!" With that, she walked sluttily into the hallway, up the stairs, and into their bedroom, slamming the door hard._

_That's when Troy heard Sharpini start crying upstairs._

Why did I ever get married to her?

_-[end of flash forward.]_-

Troy's eyes snapped open, his heart racing. He had to make sure that that scary dream, _actually_, disturbing _nightmare_, _never_ became a reality.

--

Ryan breathed in and out heavily as he entered the cottage. His father wasn't home yet, _obviously_. He was probably sleeping with some bimbo from the club at the moment and Ryan wanted nothing more than to barf.

So this was what his father does in the bar?

Ryan was absolutely furious - not only was he furious at his father for cheating on his mom, but he was furious with himself for not knowing earlier.

He should have connected the pieces earlier - after all, Mr. Evans wasn't the brightest individual and surely he left a lot of stray clues around the house.

There was that one time when his mother had been at a business trip in London and Ryan and Sharpay came home from school, only to see stray undergarments in the middle of the living room, which was accompanied with light-scented candles.

That was nearly two years ago back when Ryan was sixteen and hormonal. He didn't stop to think twice about it, accepting the dumb excuse from his dad that his mother had called from England, stating that she wanted him to get rid of her old lingerie because she was buying a whole lot more in London.

Then there were those numerous times when Mr. Evans went away on mysterious 'trips' with his buddies. He insisted the trip was to California, but two months later, Ryan found a confirmation email on his father's computer about his trip to Las Vegas. He didn't think too much about it back then because he had his own problems to deal with.

Now, everything suddenly made sense and Ryan couldn't be more pissed.

He _had _to tell someone.

He desperately wanted to confide to Sharpay, but he didn't know if Sharpay would even believe him.

She was daddy's girl, after all.

Timidly, he cautiously knocked on the wooden door of the girl's rooms, knowing fully well that Sharpay was down there considering Taylor was in the backyard with Chad and he had just seen Gabriella walk downstairs.

"WHAT?" Sharpay's shrill voice echoed from inside the room. Ryan winced at her cold tone and prayed to God she would at least hear him out.

"_Sony Ericson_, it's _Reply_! I've gotta tell you something important. Can I come in?"

"Fuck, no! I'm painting my toenails black for Troysie because I hear he likes something _edgy _and _different_."

Ryan sighed longingly. "Shar, this is really important. It's about dad."

"WELL, WHAT ABOUT HIM THAT'S SO IMPORTANT TO INTERRUPT MY TOE-NAIL PAINTING SESSION?" Sharpay shrieked from inside; he could hear the sound of her roughly putting down the nail polishing container, stomping up to unlock the door and glare at him.

"Thanks for opening up," Ryan mumbled bitterly, slipping inside the room while locking the door. Sharpay cocked an eyebrow at Ryan, who turned around to face her.

"Dad's cheating on mom," Ryan declared, his voice cracking. "I went to a strip club today-"

Sharpay blinked, her eyes wide in alarm. "What?"

Ryan knew that she was inquiring about his going to a strip club rather than their father cheating, but he didn't want to go into the details with the former.

"Don't ask why," Ryan mumbled. "But I saw dad there getting down with a couple of underage chicks."

"Ew!" Sharpay screeched, her hands flying up to her face. "Are you sure? I - I can't believe that!"

"I know, me neither. I'm positive, Shar. And I think it's been going on for a long time, too. I never knew dad had a whole other life to hide from us-" Ryan stated, still in shock from the scene he witnessed early in the afternoon. His ADD kicked in as his eyes widened excitedly and he exclaimed. "They should make a show about that! _The Secret Life of the American Dad_!"

"Oh, shut up, Ryan!" Sharpay screamed, smacking him on the cheek to get him out of his trance. "This is SERIOUS! I'm - I'm gonna call him RIGHT now and get to the bottom of this-"

"Wait!" Ryan rushed to his sister before she could get a hold of her iPhone. "Don't do it yet! Maybe... MAYBE WE CAN BLACKMAIL DAD SO HE CAN LET US DO WHATEVER HE WANTS AS LONG AS WE DON'T TELL MOM. Think about it... he's done a scum thing and what good will it do telling mom? It'll hurt her!"

"So? She's better off knowing than not. I mean, this isn't a _tiny _secret, Ry! This is daddy's dirty secret that he's kept from us for TOO long." Sharpay stated simply.

"Don't you want that freedom?" Ryan fast-talked, slipping the iPhone from her hand and setting it back into her bag. "You can get _anything_, Shar! Just think!"

Sharpay narrowed her eyes, snatching back her phone, "I already _do_, Ry." With that, she quickly dialed her dad's number, pressing the speakerphone button so that Ryan could join in the conversation.

One ring.  
Two rings.  
Three rings.

"No answer..." Sharpay said, hitting the 'end' button angrily, throwing her phone onto her bed. "Why am I not surprised?"

Ryan cautiously sat down next to his sister. She was volatile and he wasn't sure if she wanted him around. "Sharpay...don't do anything rash. We need to give ourselves some time to think about this whole thing. I mean, this is _big_ _news._"

Sharpay sighed raising her head. Ryan noticed the tears streaking her cheeks. "Mom's not home. I can't do anything, Ryan. I won't." Sharpay took Ryan's hand, "I promise."

Ryan smiled at his twin sister, kissing the front of her hand lightly. There were times when he absolutely hated his sister, and then there were times like this - times when he felt so close to sister, like they were almost the same person. Only a few times before had this feeling overtaken him - when their mom had a miscarriage a few years back and when their grandmother, Anastasia, passed away.

Sharpay smiled giving Ryan a quick kiss and rumpling his hair, "I love you little brother."

"Hey!" He shouted defensively, hiding a slight smile as he stood up, "I'm only younger by two minutes!"

----

"Y-you slept with her?" Taylor said, stifling her tears as she gripped his hand. For some reason, she couldn't let go. "Y-you and Sharpay had sex?"

Chad nodded, his eyes searching her face in desperation.

"When?"

Chad coughed nervously, "A while back. I was at her house to pick my homework up from Ryan. He had found it in the boy's bathroom earlier that day. When I went to go get it, I accidentally walked into Sharpay's room instead of Ryan's. I mean, they _both_ have hot pink doors. It's really hard not to get them confused! But anyway...I, uh, I went in and she was...I mean, well, she was in her underwear." His voice was suddenly void of emotion, as if he was trying not to relive that fateful night. "One thing led to another and..."

Taylor burst into a fit of silent tears, tearing her hand away from Chad's.

"Tay! Tay, I'm sorry! I'm_ so_ sorry," Chad shouted, reaching towards her.

Suddenly, Taylor stopped crying and hiccuped, "That's not all, is it?"

Chad gulped. "She got pregnant," he stated flatly. "Sh-she told me after she got the abortion. I had no say in whether she kept it or not. Wh-whether _we_ kept it or not. Taylor, you've got to understand that I _never _meant to hurt you. I was stupid and foolish, but if she had wanted to raise the baby, I would've taken responsibility as the father and _you know it_. But even if I hadn't done it with Sharpay, me and you still wouldn't have ever worked out. Please, don't think I'm leaving you for someone else."

Taylor slowly leaned onto him, pressing her lips at full force onto his, battling his tongue for dominance. She viciously ran a hand through his hair, pulling at his shirt with the other. The whole time, however, Chad kept his hands at his sides.

"_Taylor!_" He finally said, pushing her away, "I love you. I do, I _really_ do. But it's over. It's just not gonna work between us. I don't think it ever has."

And then he left her there, disheveled and tear stained, crumpled on the ground behind him.

_Here comes goodbye, here comes the last time  
Here comes the start of every sleepless night  
The first of every tear I'm gonna cry  
Here comes the pain, Here comes me wishing things had never changed  
And she was right here in my arms tonight, but here comes goodbye_

Gabriella stepped into the girls' room, only to see her best friend sobbing her eyes on while clutching onto a comforting pillow.

Knowing fully well that she and Taylor weren't on speaking terms, she still approached her out of concern.

"Tay?" She whispered, trying to find out if Taylor was awake.

"Go away," Taylor mumbled, shuffling under her covers as she attempted to stifle a sob.

"Are you okay?" Gabriella asked cautiously, sitting down at the corner of Taylor's bed.

Taylor's head came up from the covers, her eyes puffy and red.

"Does it _look_ like I'm okay?" Taylor snapped; although her tone was brutal and cold, Gabriella knew better than that. Taylor's face was covered with black streaks from her running mascara and eyeliner. Gabriella had never seen Taylor so torn in her entire life...

"What happened?" Gabriella asked softly, brushing the bangs off from Taylor's sweaty forehead.

"I've just been to hell and back."

Gabriella grimaced out of puzzlement. "Did something happen...?"

"Chad finally admitted to cheating on me," She managed to spit out as Gabriella's mouth hung agape. There were many times when Taylor accused Chad of cheating on her - out of either frustration, insecurity, anger, or perhaps all of the above. Even Gabriella knew that she never wanted it to be true. Knowing that her best friend's worst nightmare had come true, Gabriella wanted nothing more than to embrace her in a tight hug and ask for her forgiveness.

Most of all, she wanted to admit to Taylor that everything she said earlier was _true. _She could act like the best friend Taylor always expected her to be and denounce Chad, proclaiming him nothing more than a cheating scumbag. But, of course, that would be hypocritical considering what she did this past week.

Seeing her best friend so torn up over her boyfriend's cheating gave her the shock that she needed.

Taylor looked so hurt. Who's to say that Troy wasn't hurt also when he found out about Trevor?

Taylor took Gabriella's silence as a motive to continue. "And that's not it, either. He dropped a fucking bomb. Not only did he have sex with Sharpay, but he got her _pregnant. _That's right. It was awhile back and _neither _of them ever bothered telling me! And to top it off like a cherry on a sundae, he broke up with me!"

Gabriella cringed. She knew that Taylor would have dumped Chad on his ass if she learned of his cheating, but she also knew that the reason she was so upset was because of the fact that it was _he _who broke up with _her,_ and not the other way around.

"God, Taylor... that - that _sucks_. I'm so sorry, but... I don't know what to say."

Taylor sniffed, reaching out to grab a tissue from the tissue box resting atop the nightstand.

"Then don't say anything because you and I both know that nothing you will say will make me feel better," Taylor snapped icily, blowing her nose loudly into the tissue.

"Ouch," Gabriella whispered to herself as she stood up from Taylor's bedside. She motioned towards the door. "I'll be downstairs if you need anything."

Taylor ignored her, simply resting her cheek on the soft cushioning of her comforter, willing herself not to cry any further.

Gabriella smiled sadly before scurrying towards the wooden door, slipping out swiftly as she closed the door swiftly. As soon as her left hand loosened its grip on the knob, she came crashing into Sharpay.

"Move it, Gabriella," Sharpay demanded, her hand resting on her hip with impatience.

Gabriella rolled her eyes out of annoyance. _God_, she was so sick of Sharpay bossing everyone around. "I should probably warn you not to go in there, but I'm not even gonna bother."

Sharpay scoffed. "Silly, Gabriella! By telling me that you're not even gonna bother warning me, you actually _did _warn me."

Gabriella shrugged her shoulders, "It's not like you're gonna listen to me either way. So, suit yourself, Sharpay," With that said, she turned on her heel and exited the hallway.

Sharpay turned the doorknob, walking into the room. Her three-inch high heels clattered against the wooden floor, informing Taylor just _exactly_ who was in the room.

Sharpay, aware of Taylor's stifled sobs and her beet-red face, simply chuckled in amusement. "Well, well, well... if it isn't Ms. Mckessie bawling her eyes out."

Taylor sat still under her covers, holding in the urge to lunge out at the blonde and sucker-punch her.

"What's the matter?" Sharpay teased in a baby voice. "Did you get in a fight with your lunkhead boyfriend again?"

"Fuck off, you dragqueen."

Sharpay released a breath of hot air, becoming pissed off. "What, did you get that insult from Ryan?" She snickered indifferently. "You know, Taylor? You were _always _a wimp. You make it seem like you have complete control over everything when you actually don't. You're too _scared _to take any action. I mean, it's no wonder why Chad-"

Sharpay didn't get a chance to finish her sentence before she felt herself being tackled to the ground by one very, very pissed off ex-girlfriend.


	14. Picture To Burn

**Author's Note: **The story's coming to a closure! The next chapter will most likely be the last one, so if you haven't submitted your feedback on the story, now would be the time to do so! This chapter is fairly long. Enjoy!

* * *

**Picture to Burn**

"Whoa, catfight in the girl's room!" Ryan announced to his fellow roommates, grinning as he ran out of the room to see the commotion.

If Chad was in his usual mood, he would probably be the first one out the door, eager to see any form of girl-on-girl action. But alas, he was heartbroken from what he had to do a few hours ago. Contrary to popular belief, Chad Danforth really did care about Taylor. Maybe not in the way that Troy cared about Gabriella or the way that Ryan cared about hats, but nevertheless, he did care about her. He never meant to hurt her this much, and as soon as he heard the word catfight, he knew that there was only one explanation.

Taylor must have confronted Sharpay.

He groaned; the last thing he wanted was to cause a fight between the two girls who never got along too well to begin with. He didn't want Taylor to blame his cheating and their breakup on Sharpayentirely; granted, she was involved, but she was not the entire reason that he cheated and broke up with her.

He just wished that she would take her anger out on him and not someone else.

Maybe then and only then would they both be able to move on.

God, he had been looking forward to coming here a week and a half ago... he was sure that he would be having the time of his life.

Now? Well, now he wasn't so sure.

The cottage wasn't what he expected, but hey, that didn't bother him as much. He never expected the girl that he thought of as his little sister to hook up with some cowboy who was friends with the Evans. Nor did he expect for things between him and Taylor to spiral out of control in the way that it did. But that was life, and life was never fair. You can't control life; that's the cardinal rule.

Ryan returned into the room, shooting both Chad and Troy desperate looks.

"Oh, c'mon. Did you not hear me? CHICK FIGHT! C'mon, guys!"

Ryan had expected the lack of excitement from Troy, who spent most of his time nowadays sitting by his bed, glumly staring up at the ceiling as he contemplated his life.

But he _did_ expect Chad to jump out from his bed and run into the girls' room as fast as lightening.

"Chad, dude," Ryan felt himself grow sentimental as he realized that something must be wrong if the biggest playboy that he knew was _not _excited for a chick fight. "Did something happen? What's wrong, man?"

Chad remained silent. He knew he would tell Ryan the details eventually, but he just didn't want to talk about it at the moment. He would much rather sit down at his bed quietly, enjoying the comforting silence just as much as he knew his best friend was enjoying it.

Undisturbed.

_Wow, I guess this is what it feels like when love screws you over,_ Chad thought to himself longingly. No doubt, he had screwed over Taylor, but in the process, his actions unintentionally hurt himself as well. He was no better than Troy now.

Ryan exhaled a breath of air tiredly. Since the first approach didn't seem to work, at least the second approach should work on Troy.

"Troy, dude... don't you care that a certain someone might hurt herself?" Ryan stated, luring him in to see the sight. Sure, he would probably be annoyed once he found out that it wasn't Gabriella who was in a fight (Taylor, rather), but that wouldn't matter eventually.

Troy groaned, rubbing his temple. "What do you expect me to do? Go in there, wrap my arms around her and stop her from fighting with whoever for unknown reasons? I'm not her boyfriend anymore, Ryan. Nor her friend, for that matter. I can't do that kind of stuff. It's not my job."

Ryan wiped the thought away with his hand. "Ah, whatever, man! Screw this, everything's just falling apart!"

"You can say that again," Troy mumbled under his breath, not intending for Chad or Ryan to hear. As the shrieks from next door grew louder, all three of the boys grew curious. They were hormonal teenage boys, after all, and the idea of girls pulling at each other's hair and throwing pillows across the room seemed rather enticing to them.

"You know what," Troy started out. "Maybe we _should _go in there and check out what's going on. You know, before either of them kills the other."

"Sounds like a good idea," Chad replied, bouncing off his bed and standing up on his feet.

---

Mr. Evans staggered into the house at around 2 A.M. His breath smelled like whiskey -_ lots _of it. He laughed sickly as he remembered the fun he had tonight away from the wife and the kids. God, he missed Tennessee so much. Nothing better than hot country girls giving him the time of his life - making him feel _young _in the way that Mrs. Evans was unable to.

He didn't expect to see his son waiting by the island in the kitchen, frowning down at him.

Taken aback, he took a few steps away from the island. "Ryan, what are you doing up this late?"

"The question," Ryan started slowly, enunciating every syllable perfectly and clearly, "is why are _you _coming home so late everyday?"

Mr. Evans coughed awkwardly. Ryan's eyes widened as he smelled heavy liquor in his breath.

"Looks like someone had a little _too _much fun tonight, don't you think?" Ryan stated edgily. Mr. Evans felt his anger rising.

"I think someone better get to bed soon unless he wants to be grounded for the rest of the week," Mr. Evans barked.

"Don't think I don't know what you're up to, _father_," Ryan shouted, turning on his heel. "Now, I'm going to bed because I'm tired as hell and NOT because you told me to. Mom's a GREAT woman and you're nothing more than a cheating and lying scum."

"How dare you say those things to me?" Mr. Evans hollered, violently lunging towards Ryan and gripping him by the neck. He was close enough for Ryan to get a good whiff of his alcohol infested smell. Lord knows how much whiskey he consumed that night.

"Let go of me or I'll tell mom," Ryan hissed, gritting his teeth.

Slowly, Mr. Evans released his grip on Ryan, but not before scowling.

"You don't know anything. And you don't have any proof," Mr. Evans spat viciously, slamming his bag onto the counter. "Go to your room, son."

Ryan knew that it was just his way of reassuring himself that his son didn't know what he has been up to.

Oh, if only he knew how wrong he was.

Ryan bounded up the stairs to his room, rushing into his room and plopping onto his bed. Both Chad and Troy had fallen asleep long ago. Knowing he would not be able to sleep, Ryan began to mentally think up of a plan.

Ryan Evans wanted revenge.

And with a sister like Sharpay Evans, revenge came easily.

----

Gabriella woke up, bleary eyed and weary, in an unfamiliar surrounding. There were long, dark paneled walls surrounding her and a rug lined the floor that would probably be in an issue of _Country Living _magazine back in the 40's. She slowly rose to her feet, staring at the small room in a brief panic, quickly realizing she was wearing the same clothes she had worn the night before. The small twin bed had a floral patterned comforter over it, and a pastel colored hand-knit blanket. This definitely wasn't the Evans' cottage.

She tried to think back to the night before. Something with Taylor, a walk down the road, _and then_...Trevor's house. She sighed in relief. She was in Trevor's guest bedroom.

Gabriella glanced at the clock on the wall. It was noon.

How long have I been here? She thought to herself as she slipped off her shoes and quietly tiptoed out of the room and into a short hallway. She made her way into the living room, where Trevor was sprawled out on the sofa, doing the crossword in his newspaper.

"Hi..." She said slowly, padding over to him from across the room.

Trevor looked up in surprise, smiling. "Hey, darlin'! You've been asleep for quite a while." He set his newspaper onto the coffee table and pulled her down next to him, kissing her forehead.

"D-did I fall asleep here?" She asked, knitting her brows in confusion, "I don't really remember what happened last night."

Trevor smirked, kissing her neck, "You don't remember? I must not have done as good of a job as I thought. I remember vividly, though..." He winked up at her, taking her hand in his and kissing the top.

"We didn't?!" Gabriella shrieked, suddenly pulling away from him, backing up against the armrest. "I mean, we did..._it_?"

Trevor gave her a sly grin, leaning closer to her, crouching on the sofa. He hovered above her, and winked again.

"Oh my gosh! We had sex last night!" Her eyes started to well with tears.

Trevor deflated, "I'm just jokin', Gabs. We didn't do nothin' except make out a little." Gabriella relaxed a bit as Trevor took back his seat.

"Trevor. That wasn't funny." She said, stiffling her tears.  
_  
Funny for me..._ He thought, smirking inwardly.

"Now tell me what really happened."

Trevor wrapped his arms around her, running a hand down her thigh gracefully.

"Well..." He said, "We were sittin' just like this, an' you seemed mighty upset. You told me 'bout yer' best friend, Taylor, and how her boyfriend didn't do right by 'er. I told you I would never do nothin' like that to ya'. Then...well, we did a littl'a _this_." He massaged her thighs slowly, never taking his eyes off of her.

Gabriella groaned softly, biting her lip.

"And then I did_ this_..." He whispered, turning her to face him, still massaging her legs, and kissed her neck, leaving hickeys along her collar bone.

"T-Trev..." She stuttered, feeling her stomach tense and release with every kiss.

"_Shh..._" He said, reaching for her hands. "After that you did a little of this..." He placed her hands under his shirt, onto his stomach, moving them around so that she could feel his abs. "And _I_ did this..."

He slid the straps of her dress away from her shoulders with one index finger, releasing her hair from its containing elastic with the other. Gabriella felt herself melt into his arms slowly, and before she knew it, her breathing became heavy.

"Yeah, that's just like you last night. But then the door started jigglin' so we was quick to fix ourselves up. That's when ma' dad came in with my brother. You were so tired after that, and you kept sayin' how you didn't wanna go back to the cottage, so my dad said that you could stay in the guest bedr'm. You fell asleep right after that."

Gabriella stopped, blinking stupidly. Trevor could make her feel so..._excited_, so ready to _give in_. Whenever he worked his magic on her - that sweet southern charm, those lips, those able hands - she ended up either trying to catch her breath or half naked and in a rather compromising position.

"You're not a virgin, are you, Trevor?" She asked suddenly, shocking even herself.

Trevor's hands dropped to his sides, "W-what makes you ask that?" He said, narrowing his eyes in confusion.

"Trevor - I like you, I really, truly do. But every time we're around each other, we end up sweaty and clinging to each other. I just feel like...you've had sex before, so you know exactly how to get a girl into bed, or something."

He sighed, "No, I ain't a virgin. I lost it with my first girlfriend, Brianna. It was a stupid mistake. I had been savin' it for someone special...and trust me, Bri wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. But she had already lost hers. She...knew what to do. One thing led to another and-"

"So, you know how to do all this..._stuff,_ right?" Gabriella asked slowly.

Trevor nodded. "But Gabriella, I'm not tryin' to get you in bed. When you come t'see me, I don't think 'Oh, I'ma make her take her clothes off'. It just..._happens_. You get me _so_ worked up, Gab. I don't mean for nothin' to elevate to that level, but it just does."

"I don't want our relationship to be based on the physical aspect only." She stated flatly.

"And it's _not_," he replied, taking her hand in his, "I love you - not just your body, but your _mind_, your _heart_. We could stop kissin' and huggin' 'till the end of time and I'd _still _love you. Yer' my darlin', and I don't wanna make you do somethin' you aren't ready to do."

Gabriella's mind flashed back to what Taylor said. How much did she _really _know about Trevor to begin with? Sure, she knew that he and Sharpay knew each other all their lives and that he was still somehow scarred from the ways in which she treated him. She also knew that he was a sweet guy, and any girl would be lucky to have him.

But what if she wasn't that girl?

Mrs. Evans had told her to fix her own problems before attempting to please anyone else.

Troy had bluntly told her to figure what the hell she wanted.

It was the same message, basically, but only in different tones and words.

She knew what she had to do - she had to break up with Trevor.

"Trev," She started out unsure, scooting to the opposite side of the couch. "I-I don't know anymore. I think I need some time by myself to th-think things over. I-I don't deserve you-"

Trevor's face fell, his heart skipping a beat. He knew all too well where she was going with this.

* * *

The doors of the boys' room flew open as a pissed off Taylor, bed-hair was in disarray, shot daggers at the empty covers of Chad's bed. Troy, who was still under covers, blinked in confusion, but decided it was best if he did not speak.

Taylor, who had a couple of band-aids on her face and her thighs from last night's grappling with the devil in the form of a blonde bitch, pulled out Chad's bag of props that he brought along with him from Albuquerque. She lifted up the bag within seconds, dragging it behind her in utter rage.

"Um..." Troy mumbled to himself, climbing off his bed as he followed after Taylor. "Taylor, where are you going with Chad's things?"

The stomps of her feet were audible as she retreated back to the girls' room. "Since that bastard doesn't have his stupid damn pickup truck with him, I'm gonna ruin the next best thing - all this fucking crap."

With that, Taylor slammed the door violently. Troy, taken aback, stared blankly at the door. He didn't know what Taylor was planning to do with all of his best friend's possessions - all he knew was that the next couple of days were _not _going to be very pretty.

_So watch me strike a match  
On all my wasted time  
As far as I'm concerned  
You're just another picture to burn_

----

Three hours later, Chad Danforth strolled into the bathroom lazily, preparing to take a shower. He applied the same old shampoo that he always did for treating his afro and rinsed, as per usual. When he emerged from the tub, he noticed that the usual towel that hung on the rack was missing. He chuckled to himself at first, assuming it was one of the guys trying to prank him again. He turned to the mirror, staring at his reflection.

Wait. What the fuck? WHERE DID HIS AFRO HAIR GO?

Panicking, he glanced back into the tub, his eyes widening as he saw chunks of his hair resting at the bottom.

He did the only thing he could - scream. He began banging on the door maniacally, shouting.

"TAYLOR! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY HAIR?!?!"

A female voice from outside the bathroom rang out. "If you want your towel, you're gonna have to run for it, boy!"

Chad opened the door, his hands covering his manhood as he ran down the hall butt-naked.

"WHERE ARE THE TOWELS?" Chad hollered, only to see Taylor nowhere in sight. He ran into the boys' room, which was luckily empty of people, searching for his clothes.

"Where did all my stuff go?" Chad muttered to himself, rummaging for extra or any spare towels in the room. But the extra supply seemed to be gone. He gritted his teeth. The culprit was none other than Taylor McKessie, hoping to get him back for hurting her.

"Oh, Chad!" Taylor shouted. Chad glanced around the room, afraid that someone was about to pop out of the closet and take Facebook pictures. Then his eyes flew to the window, finally realizing that Taylor was outside already. Barely thinking, he climbed out the window and jumped, falling two stories down into a pine bush. Taylor cackled in delight as Chad screamed out in pain. She circled the cottage, running towards the backyard where guests currently sat, enjoying a sunny afternoon.

"Oww," Chad cried, knowing he had splinters in places where the sun didn't shine. Running after Taylor, he came face to face with about twenty guests of Mr. and Mrs. Evans.

His face turned beat red as he attempted to cover as much of himself as possible. He wasn't sure what was more important - covering his now burnt afro or covering his willy.

Crap. He completely forgot about the party the Evans parents were throwing.

----

Gabriella tore into the boy's room, her hair flowing loosely behind her. Troy looked up from his _ESPN Zone_ magazine to give her a quick once over. She looked different than she usually did - she was no longer the gaunt, pale figure he had come to know a few days ago. Instead, she looked renewed, glowing even, as if she had spent most of the day tanning out on the beach. Gabriella got her color back. Her cheeks were rosy, her eyes weren't red and puffy, and, for the first time in a long time, she had a genuine smile on her face.

Troy blinked in surprise. This was the Gabriella who he used to call his girlfriend, not that frail, fragile thing he had left crumpled on the grass days before.

"Troy," She said, breathing heavily. _She must have run a long way_, Troy thought, sliding his magazine onto the floor. _Maybe she was at Trevor's house..._

"_Troy_," She repeated, carefully stepping into the room, as if she were afraid that there were land mines buried beneath the wooden planks.

He knit his brows, his eyes locked on hers as she tiptoed into the boy's room.

Gabriella sighed, "Troy, listen. I know I've been a complete jerk to you these past few weeks," She started, biting her lower lip nervously. "And I know you probably don't wanna talk to me right now, b-"

"Yes, Gabriella, you're right. You _have_ been a complete jerk to me and I _don't _really want to hear what you're about to say. So can you make it fast? I'm supposed to go help Mrs. Evans serve hors devours for her guests. She's having some big garden party or something..." Troy stood up, crossing the room to stare out the window, looking out on the front lawn.

"Oh," she gulped, "then I'll make this quick...Troy, I broke up with Trevor." She waited for a reaction, any sort of reaction. What she got was a short, breathy sigh, and a head scratch.

"What do you expect?" Troy finally asked, turning to face Gabriella, his eyes tired and expressionless. "Do you want me to run over to you and sweep you off your feet? Do you expect me to kiss you lovingly and tell you that I'm glad that you want me back? You want me to ask you to be my girlfriend again? Do you expect things to go back to the way they were before all of this? I mean, really Gabriella, what do you suggest?"

Gabriella sat down on Ryan's bed, her hands clasped together, resting quietly on her lap.

"I don't expect anything to change between us. And I didn't do it for you. I did it for me. And you. I mean...it was a little bit of both. You told me that I needed to figure some things out before we got back together. I knew in my heart that one of those 'things' was my relationship with Trevor. I fell so fast - so hard - that by the time I realized what was happening, I was in too deep to dig myself out. I thought I loved Trevor, but now I know that our love was meant for friends, nothing more." Gabriella paused, letting her words sink in. "But while I was over Trevor's house today, I learned something else, too. When we first met, we took it slow, you and me. I hadn't wanted to rush into anything permanent. I was scared."

She sighed, her words floating around the room like fog over the horizon, "But with Trevor...we went towards every relationship check point twenty times faster. I wanted a quick fix. I wanted a friendship first, and he was okay with that, but I needed someone to take up the hole in my heart that you left in it. I needed a band-aid, and Trevor did that for me. He played the part - he did what I had wanted him to. He let me feel almost normal again."

Troy knit his brows, turning to face her.

"Our relationship was physical. I think that without the physical aspect, we wouldn't have had much. I mean, Trevor was a great guy, but that wasn't what I had wanted. I wanted something temporary. I..." Gabriella broke off, choking back tears. "I was afraid that if something got permanent again, like how you and me did, and it didn't work out...My heart would hurt to much."

Troy resisted the urge to reach out to her, to run a hand through her hair and let his palm grace her cheek. He wanted to erase what had transpired in the past few weeks from every one's mind and go back to how they were in Albuquerque. He wanted to go back to being one half of the Golden Couple. He wanted so much to happen between them, but, in the back of his mind, he knew that these things he grasped for were far out of reach.

"Me and you usually didn't rush into anything. We were comfortable with each other. I liked that about us. We were comfortable with each other because we knew each other so well. I didn't know Trevor, I only thought I did," Gabriella shifted positions, flattening her dress against her thighs. "I don't expect us to get back together right away, Troy. Actually - I don't expect us to get back together at all. I just want us to be friends, or at least _cordial _towards each other." She gestured to the space in between them with her index finger. "I just want things to be a little less tense than they are now, I want-"

"I want, I want, _I want_! Well, you know what, Gabriella? I want things, too..." He stopped short, holding his breath, trying to release the tension from his body. "Things _can't_ just go back to the way they were, no matter how much we both want it to be."

Gabriella looked up at him silently, her eyes glassy with unshed tears.

Suddenly, Troy walked towards her, pulling her up by her wrists, kissing her passionately for a few brief seconds.

"Troy..." she whispered, letting herself melt against him.

Before she knew what was happening, however, Troy threw her back against Ryan's bed. Her eyes widened in alarm as she fell against the cold sheets.

"Is that what you wanted, Gabriella? Did you think that I was really ready to forget everything?" He stared down at her with cold eyes.

"T-Troy-" She choked out, her eyes searching his for some sort of reasoning.

Troy narrowed his eyes slightly, "If you fucking love me, prove it." With that, he started for the door, but before he made it all the way across, he went back and kissed her on the forehead. His lips were cold against his warm skin. He let himself rest there for a moment before he swiftly exited the room, leaving Gabriella sitting like a schoolgirl who had just been reprimanded by a teacher.

----

"_Chad..._" Mrs. Evans said slowly, rising from her delicate white French-inspired garden chair, her light pink sun hat billowing in the unexpected breeze. "_Please _have a good explanation for this..."

"Uh..." He started nervously, grabbing the closest available item - a flower vase - to cover his crotch. "I, um...I was taking a shower...and I kinda misplaced my towel. And, um, I do believe an angry ex-girlfriend replaced my shampoo with some chemicals so my fantastic afro is in rather crappy shape right now. Alas," Chad turned, his eyes scanning the area for Taylor, "my afro grows unnaturally fast, so not to worry, it will most likely grow back in a week tops."

Mrs. Evans coughed nervously as all of her aged-looking guests stared at the semi-bald naked figure standing before them.

"I think he looks cute," said an old gray-haired cougar in an uncomfortable looking lilac-colored suit jacket and white lacy knee-length skirt. "_Rawr_!"

Chad giggled nervously as he shot a death glare at Taylor, who was peaking out from behind the trunk of a tree, waving at him, towel in hand.

Suddenly, Chad began to sing, grasping at any way to ease the awkwardness from his current situation. "_Annie are you okay? So, Annie are you okay? Are you okay, Annie_?"

The group of women blinked in a strange sort of _group shock. _

"_So, Annie are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay, Annie? You've been hit by, you've been struck by, a smoooooth criminal_."

Suddenly, one of the women slammed down her tea cup onto its saucer, standing up swiftly. "I love this song!" She exclaimed.

Another woman, this one in a sky-blue pants-suit, rose to her feet, "Michael Jackson is my favorite artist of all time!"

Chad began to smile as another woman stood up, shouting "Hey! My name's Annie!"

Before he knew it, he was singing another verse of 'Smooth Criminal', shaking his rump wildly. "_So they came into the outway. It was Sunday - what a black day. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Sounding heartbeats - intimidation_!"

The old cougar jumped in, shaking violently to the music inside her head, "_Annie, are you okay? So, Annie are you okay? Are you okay, Annie?"_

"_Annie, are you okay? So, Annie are you okay? ARE YOU OKAY, ANNIE_!" Chad shouted, getting so into the song that he dropped the vase, causing it to crash into a million pieces at his feet, so that he could grab his air-microphone and bounce along to the beat.

"Chad..." Mrs. Evans shook her head in disgust, turning away from him so that she didn't have to look at his...manhood. She stared up at her guests, who were apparently unaware of the vase falling away from his body. Either that, or they liked it.

---

**Author's Note: **Next chapter will most likely be just as long and will tie up loose ends. After the final chapter, we may post the first chapter to a newer story, which will be a _lot_ less dramatic and takes place in an amazing town in Italy! Let us know your thoughts on this!


	15. I'm Only Me When I'm With You

**Author's Note: **The last chapter was so long that it had to be split into two parts. Sorry for the long wait, I know some of you may have to reread the previous chapters to refresh your memories of the events that happened. Happy New Year!

* * *

**I'm Only Me When I'm With You**

_Two Weeks Later..._

Chad pulled away from the heated kiss, a smile toying his lips. "_Mhmm,"_ He moaned, his mouth turning into a pout as his new friend-with-benefits pulled away.

"Aw, c'mon, babe! We only have one more day left here in the countryside. Let's make this a night to remember!" Chad winked, his hand sliding down the girl's backside.

"Chad, remember how that turned out _last _time?"

"Oh, yeah," Chad shuddered, not wanting to travel down memory lane again as bad memories flooded his mind. "Never mind. I forget that you don't take the pill anymore."

"I ran out! God, I can't be sterile forever!"

Chad grinned, stifling a slight chuckle. "God, you're so hot when you're angry."

"And you're so smexy when you're naked in front of a bunch of old ladies who want to rape you to feel young again!"

"AHH!" Chad screamed in horror. "DON'T JOKE ABOUT THAT KINDA STUFF. ONE OLD LADY NAMED VIVICA TRIED TO SEDUCE ME AT THAT GARDEN PARTY!"

"Are you sure you didn't secretly have a crush on her?" She laughed.

"GOD, NO. I HATE THAT OLD HAG. I HAD TO SING SOME MJ AND DANCE WITH A VASE TO GET HER OFF MY DICK!"

"Speaking of your dick," The blonde smiled deviously. "How do you feel tonight, babe?"

"Hard, very hard," He groaned. "C'mon, Sharpay! We don't have to do it tonight, but you don't know how bad this feels!"

"Don't worry, baby. I've got you covered," Sharpay said with a wink.

Just as Chad slipped his hand beneath Sharpay's baby doll shirt, Ryan pranced into the room, bumping up and down to the music playing on his iPod.

"_THIS IS THE NEWWW SHIIT_!" Ryan rocked out to the familiar Marilyn Manson tune, his eyes closed as he let his body groove to the rhythm. As the song concluded in a head-banging crescendo, Ryan slowly opened his eyes, only to shut them once again when he saw the scene on Chad's bed.

"Ooh baby," Chad moaned just before Ryan screamed in horror, his hands flying to cover his hazel eyes, dropping his iPod in the process.

"_I'VE GOT THE YOU-KNOW-WHAT, I'LL STICK IT IN THE YOU-KNOW-WHERE," _Ryan sang in an attempt to block out the noise, only to later realize that the lyric corresponded to what was going on at the moment. "GOD DAMN, AFRO-BOY. HAVE SOME DESCENCY, AT LEAST LOCK THE DAMN DOOR BEFORE YOU FUCK MY SISTER."

Upon not receiving any response from Chad, Ryan began thinking back to their tryst in the backyard as he walked out the door.

"I THOUGHT WHAT WE HAD WAS SPECIAL!" Ryan screamed out before slamming the door closed, leaving the two lovebirds alone.

--

Gabriella stood in the doorway as she watched Mr. Evans slowly sip his morning coffee, reading _The Country Context_ newspaper that Mrs. Evans had left for him earlier that day. Slowly, she made her way towards him, knocking on the wall quietly, trying to get his attention.

Frank looked up from his paper and smiled at Gabriella. "Hello," he said, clearing away the remains of his blueberry scone from the counter giving Gabriella room to rest her arms.

"Hi, Mr. Evans," she began slowly, being very careful of her wording. "Uh...I was wondering if I could talk to you about something..."

Mr. Evans pushed his glasses up a bit on the bridge of his nose, setting his coffee mug down beside him. "Certainly, Gabriella, but if it's one of those lady problems, I think you'd be better off talking to Janice-"

"No, no. Nothing like that." she started, staring at him from across the counter, "I just wanted to clear up a few things. There have been a few rumors floating around lately about you and your...actions." She coughed awkwardly, "And well, I heard that-"

"What?!" He asked suddenly, cutting her off, "Did your mother say something about me?! I never touched her! Never, do you understand me? If she says I did, she's a _liar_! THOSE CHARGES WERE DROPPED!" He shouted, slamming his fist down on the table, as if he was in his own world.

Gabriella stood there with a dazed expression, her eyes wide, and her arms limp at her sides. She cleared her throat nervously as Frank came back to reality. "Um, actually, Mr. Evans, my mom has nothing to do with this..."

Mr. Evans opened his mouth in an attempt to speak, but only tongue-tied gibberish came out.

"Anyways..." she said, taking a step back from Frank, "The rumor is that...well, that you're cheating on Mrs. Evans."

The kitchen suddenly grew silent. Frank stood, dumping his plate into the sink with a clang. "Who told you that?" he asked, cutting through the silence dramatically.

"A lot of people, actually," Gabriella mumbled under her breath. "But, um, a few weeks ago I went swimming by a lake-"

"I'VE NEVER BEEN TO A LAKE IN MY LIFE!" He screamed out too quickly.

Gabriella blinked, taken aback. "Err, Mr. Evans... I didn't... say you were... there. And, um, you own the Lava Springs... there's a giant lake in the middle where you go fishing in the afternoon."

"HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY PERSONAL LIFE?" Mr. Evans screamed out in a rage. "ARE YOU SOME SORT OF _STALKER, WOMAN_?" His stubby index finger pointed at her face, giving him the appearance of a senile old man.

"Never mind." Gabriella said, moving towards the door. "Just... forget I said anything. I, uh...I've gotta go... brush my hair. Um, I'll see you later." With that, she raced out of the kitchen and up the stairs, cursing under her breath for her failed attempt at reconciling the Evans couple.

Running into her room, she slammed the door and jumped onto her bed. She reached for her cell phone that rested at her nightstand, and pressed Speed Dial # 2.

"Mom? Did Mr. Evans ever... umm... touch you... ever?"

"What kind of greeting is that?" Her mom said over the line. "And why are you suddenly asking about this? Did he- DID HE TOUCH YOU?!?! THOSE CHARGES WERE NEVER DROPPED, YOU KNOW!"

Gabriella, stunned for the second time today, quickly pressed _END CALL_, letting her phone drop to the floor with a thud. This was _too _much for her to handle.

---

Taylor sat outside on a lounging chair on the back porch, her eyes staring into her book, _Princeton Review: Cracking the LSAT. _This was her last day at the cottage, and she still had tons of College Prep to catch up on. Damn Chad Danforth for breaking her heart and distracting her from her ultimate goal that she would pursue next year at Yale University. She wanted nothing more than to return home to Albuquerque and see her parents again. July had passed by seemingly fast, and so had the trip to Tennessee.

While her ex-boyfriend and his new hook-up buddy, Sharpay Fricken Evans, spent their last day inside doing the dirty, Taylor McKessie preferred studying for the LSAT while lounging around in the sun.

"Hey, what'chu up to?" Troy appeared from the yard, running up the stairs and onto the porch, taking the seat next to her.

Taylor resisted the urge to roll her eyes; of course, she could never be productive when her friends kept on distracting her.

"LSATS?" Troy read the cover, blinking. "Don't you have all the time in the world to study for that?"

"I'm an over-achiever," Taylor stated matter-of-factly. "And I hate procrastination of all forms!"

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Speaking of procrastination, I believe you and Gabriella should have some sort of talk in the next few hours..." She drawled on. "Y'know, the talk you've been meaning to have for the past week."

Troy let out an aggravated groan. "Look, I don't even know if she's over Trevor yet."

Taylor scoffed. "I doubt she even _liked _Trevor in the first place! You know, Troy. Just because girls are not as... expressive about their sexual desires, doesn't mean they don't crave it-"

Troy tried to block out the sound of Taylor's voice penetrating through his ears. "Oh, God, not this again-"

"The truth is men are just stupid, selfish PIGS!" Taylor ranted, beginning to ramble off topic. "THEY FEEL HORNY, AND WANT TO STICK THEIR DICK INTO THE NEAREST FEMALE HOLE-"

"I'm outta here," Troy deadpanned, refusing to listen to anymore of this as he stood up from his comfortable seat within minutes of sitting down.

"NO!" Taylor cried out instantly, dropping her prep book as she stood up, scrambling towards Troy frantically. "Troy! Come back! I haven't ranted to anyone _in weeks! _I feel _soo_ alone!"

Troy stopped in his tracks, the good-guy in him relinquishing. "All right, Taylor. Go on."

Taylor smiled, opening her mouth as words freely erupted.

"I HATE MEN ALMOST AS I HATE ASHLEIGH FRICKEN WISDALE! HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW CLOSE OF A RESEMBLANCE SHE HAS TO SHARPAY? IT MAKES ME _SICK!_"

"Mhmm," Troy mumbled, casting his eyes over Taylor's shoulder as he spotted Gabriella walking out from the side door and heading towards the garden, most likely on her way to pick up some berries.

"GOD, AND THAT STUPID CORBIN AZUL AND HIS AFRO BUDDIES WHO THINK THEY'RE THE BEST DAMN THING SINCE SLICED BREAD! _FEAR OF DROWNING_? MORE LIKE FEAR OF LISTENING TO HIS OWN MUSIC AND LOOKING THAT DEFLATED AFRO OF HIS!"

Troy, staring off into the distance, his eyes following Gabriella, simply nodded. "Totally."

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?" She hollered, waving her left hand in front of his dazed face. Upon receiving no sign from Troy that he was even in-tune, she swiftly turned around to see what he was staring at. "OH, GREAT. YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE I HATE? STUPID DICKHOLES WHO DON'T MAKE UP WITH THEIR EX-GIRLFRIENDS AND SECRETLY STALK THEM WITH SEX EYES," Taylor screamed deliriously.

"Taylor, did you get any sleep last night?"

"NO, NOT REALLY. WHAT'S IT TO YA, PUNK?"

Troy blinked. "All right, um. How bout you sit here and continue with your prepping for-" Troy squinted at the title of the LSAT book. "Um, with whatever that thing is while I go talk to Gabriella-"

Taylor narrowed her eyes, casting a deadly glare at Troy's direction. "Oh, great. _Whoopee_, you finally grew a pair. Lovely timing, as well, Troy," She stated dramatically. "JUST WHEN I'M IN NEED OF SOMEONE TO-"

Troy cut her off briskly, squeezing her arm comfortingly. "You'll be all right, Taylor. Ryan's inside and needs someone to rant about Chad and Sharpay with... so if you're not really in the mood to study, you can always go rant with him."

He shot her a reassuring smile before turning his head in Gabriella's direction. "I've delayed this for too long, it's about time that I talk to her." With that said, he pivoted in her direction, jogging over towards the field.

Spotting her in the distance, he came to a halt, gulping loudly. Gabriella caught his eye and slowly walked toward him, meeting in the center of the large field.

"Hey," She said, rubbing her foot against the back of her leg awkwardly.

Troy bit his lower lip, pulling at the skin with his teeth. "Uh, hi. Gabriella...we-we need to talk."

_I'm only up when you're not down.  
Don't wanna fly if you're still on the ground.  
It's like no matter what I do.  
Well, you drive me crazy half the time;  
the other half I'm only trying to let you know that what I feel is true.  
And I'm only me when I'm with you._

She laughed dryly, looking down at her feet, "It almost sounds like you're gonna break up with me. I mean, if we were going out or something."

Troy tried to laugh, but it ended up coming out like a weird breathy wheeze. "Uh, anyways..." He took a seat in the grass, looking back at the cottage, which seemed much farther away than it actually was.

Gabriella quietly sat down across from him, tucking her legs beneath her. "Troy, I-" She started, pulling a blade of grass from the ground, tearing it into tiny little pieces.

"No," he said, cutting her off, "Let me go first. When you came to me and told me all those things about you and Trevor, about you and I, I didn't know how to feel. I-I was angry and sad and disappointed and..." He sighed, letting out his pent up frustration, "I was worried about you. I know I didn't show it, but I was. I was really, really worried."

He cupped her face in his hands, searching her brown orbs for some sort of reassurance that she was alright again - that she was emotionally ready for what he was about to dish out. "Gabriella - you were spiraling out of control. You may not have noticed, but everyone else has. Back in Albuquerque, you _never_ would've tried to sleep with a boy on the first date. Back in Albuquerque, I never would've caught you and some _kid _practically naked on his kitchen counter. I don't know why you started to act like this, Gabriella." Gabriella slowly lifted her hand, rubbing it against his wrist, his hands still against her cheeks.

"Troy, I-"

"Gabriella," he said, quickly turning away from her, dropping his arms to the ground, "I missed what we had, I really did. And you did, too. But, we both turned to things we didn't want. You turned to a relationship, I turned to sedatives. The drugs, the alcohol, Gabi, you know that wasn't me. That's not the kind of guy I am! But...I didn't know what to do without you."

"Sh-Sharpay?" Gabriella asked. He could tell she was crying.

"Sharpay was just a stunt. The whole thing. I mean, what me and Sharpay had was...lust. It was nothing like the relationship between you and I. She...she was so sweet and charming the night you walked in on us. I was a fool to believe her game was reality. I mean, she's one of the most convincing actresses I know." Troy turned to look at Gabriella, who quickly wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"Gabriella, listen. I didn't mean what I said when you came up to me two weeks ago. You don't have to prove that you love me. I already know. But I don't think we'll ever have what we used to."

Gabriella looked into his eyes, noticing that they were wet with unshed tears. "I didn't mean to hurt you, you know that..." She said as she leaned towards him.

_Just a small town boy and girl  
Livin' in a crazy world  
Tryin' to figure out what is and isn't true  
And I don't try to hide my tears  
My secrets or my deepest fears _

Troy closed his eyes, sighing slowly, as he felt her lips come crashing onto his.

"Gabriella, I-" He said, raising a quivering hand to her face, running his fingers through her hair. She wrapped an arm around his waist, as they shared in the passionate kiss.

"Gabriella..." He whispered, "Gabriella, we ca-"

"Shh..." She mumbled with a smile as she felt his hands against her neck.

"GABRIELLA!" He shouted, pushing her away. Her eyes went wide as she fell back against the grass, breathing heavily. "Gabriella, we can't. It's not that easy. We can't just go back to the way we were before. Even you said so yourself."

Gabriella rubbed a hand against her lower back as she pulled herself upright. "I don't understand, Troy."

_Through it all nobody gets me like you do  
And you know everything about me  
You say that you can't live without me _

"We need to apologize to each other. We need to start anew. Fresh. We have to erase the past." He paused, running a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for hurting you and for making a fool out of myself in that fight with Trevor. But I'm especially sorry for not trusting you when you told me you never slept with him. I believe you now, Gabby. I'm _really _sorry."

"I'm sorry. I'm _so, so_ sorry. I'm sorry for not being faithful to you. I'm sorry for trusting Trevor. I'm sorry for almost having sex with someone I barely knew. But I love you, Troy. Please, don't forget that."

_When I'm with anybody else,  
it's so hard to be myself.  
Only you can tell_

Troy smiled, pulling her up to her feet. "I love you, too, Gabriella Montez." And with that, he leaned forward, giving her the most romantic - most _loving_ - kiss she had ever received.

_That I'm only up when you're not down  
Don't wanna fly if you're still on the ground  
It's like no matter what I do  
Well you drive me crazy half the time  
The other half I'm only trying to let you know  
that what I feel is true.  
And I'm only me when I'm with you_.

----

Frank Evans gritted his teeth, his hands absent-mindedly playing with the fabric of the dining table cloth. He was being held a prisoner in his own cottage by his very own kindred.

His sweet little princess was currently staring down at him with a hard expression, her brown eyes glaring at him. His son's hazel eyes scanned his face to read his expression, most likely searching his face for signs of guilt or repentance.

"Well, dad?" His son demanded drily, his hand firmly placed on his upper hip as his eyes stared at Frank. Both of his children stood in front of him, towering him in superior positions as he sat on the chair, inferior.

"I understand your point, son," Frank replied solemnly. "But unless you want me and your mother to stay together, I wouldn't tell her if I were you."

Ryan blinked. The possibility of divorce didn't strike him before. Crap, how could he have not thought about the consequences?

Sharpay scoffed, brushing the thought aside with her right palm. "I wouldn't mind."

Ryan rose an eyebrow, turning to his sister before hissing. "Shar, if they divorce, we would end up living with mom, and dad wouldn't be there to buy you expensive presents every weekend."

"Oh, yeah," Sharpay breathed out in realization. She shot Ryan an apologetic smile, "My bad. I guess my head is still all in a whirl from..." Her sincere smile faded, a coy smirk surfacing. "_Chad_ and his moves-"

Ryan's hands flew to his ears, blocking out his sister's words. "Ew, _sick._"

Frank blinked, unaware of his daughter's actions. He stilled believed that his little girl was a virgin. Ha, how far _that _was from the truth.

"Chad seems like a fine young man. He sure knows how to entertain guests!" Frank stated, hoping to divert the conversation to another topic.

Ryan felt his stomach churn. Oh, how he missed his bromance with Chad! Playing pranks on Troy while he was asleep, getting high in the backyard on lazy afternoons, pinching cow udders - long gone were those days for now it was his sister who gained the attention of Chad.

"Yeah, his little performance for the cougars the other day was a few steps short of a pole. Hey, put Milly Sirrus in it and it would've been great."

Sharpay glared at her brother, smacking him on the arm. "Don't talk about my boo that way!"

Ryan deadpanned. "Your _boo?_ You're kidding, right?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes, shaking her head no. "_Ryan_, you know Chad's into the whole ghetto scene."

"Whoa, whoa," Frank interrupted his children's banter to blurt out. "You may think I'm old, but trust me, I got _moves _to prove that I'm not and I'm fully aware of the connotation of '_my boo_'."

Ryan and Sharpay blinked, puzzled.

"Uh..." Ryan started, his face blank. "What?"

Frank pointed his stubby finger at Sharpay. "You're dating that Danforth kid! That's it, I take back all I said. He's rude, obnoxious, and absolutely inappropriate! You better break up with that boy-"

Sharpay cleared her throat. "_Achem_, did you forget the deal we made already?"

Frank blinked, groaning as he remembered.

"How bout this- you let me date Chad and allow me to stay in my room _alone _with Chad _whenever, _no matter the day or time. No knocking or peaking - _zip." _Sharpay stressed her point, clearly implying her intentions. "You will continue buying me presents and supplying me with money for shopping _whenever _I want. If you abide to this, Ryan and I will promise not to tell mom about what you've done on the condition that you never, ever cheat on her again-"

"Deal," Frank blurted out instantly.

"Hey!" Ryan objected, hurt apparent in his expression. "What about me? Don't I get any say in this?"

"Oh, yeah," Sharpay silenced for a minute before stating, "And you buy Ryan a hat or something. So, do we have ourselves a deal?"

"You bet," Frank grinned, sticking out his hand to shake.

"And I want the same privacy that Sharpay requested!" Ryan added.

Sharpay snorted. "What? Are you gonna invite boys from the drama club into your room?"

Ryan glared at her, shooting daggers. "That is none of your bees-wax."

"Whatever the hell you two want, you got it," Frank announced, standing up from his seat. "Now get your packed bags and load it into the truck. Our flight leaves in three hours, and we gotta make it in time to the airport for check-in. I know it's a private plane, but we still have to go through the mess of a local airport..."

Ryan beamed, feeling nearly elated at the prospect of receiving _anything _he wanted, not that it didn't already hold true for him currently, but he didn't realize it as of the moment.

"_Oh, you got it so goood, make this dance floor HOT_-" Ryan sang the lyric that his father's words reminded him of.

Meanwhile, Sharpay just rolled her eyes before stomping up the stairs and into her room, mumbling. "Fruity."


End file.
